Again this year, the United States is first in the rankings of the 2008 IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, a pioneer in ranking and analyzing how nations compete and manage their path to prosperity,

But will the United States’ run continue? In 1989, Japan seemed firmly in the number one position with the US in third. By 1994, however, the US took over leadership, a position it has held ever since. The downfall of Japan in competitiveness bears some similarities with the present situation. Will the US follow the same path?


 

THE TOP 20 IN 2008 (OUT OF 55)

 

20 YEARS AGO IN 1989!

Score 2008

Country

Rank 2008

Rank 2007

 

OECD Countries

Rank 1989

Score 1989

100.0

USA

1

1

 

Japan

1

100.0

99.3

Singapore

2

2

 

Switzerland

2

98.5

95.0

Hong Kong

3

3

 

USA

3

92.7

89.7

Switzerland

4

6

 

Canada

4

87.3

84.4

Luxembourg

5

4

 

Germany (FRG)

5

85.0

83.9

Denmark

6

5

 

Finland

6

81.5

83.5

Australia

7

12

 

Netherlands

7

81.2

82.9

Canada

8

10

 

Sweden

8

80.5

82.5

Sweden

9

9

 

Norway

9

79.2

80.5

Netherlands

10

8

 

Australia

10

77.7

79.5

Norway

11

13

 

NON-OECD Countries

Rank 1989

Score 1989

77.6

Ireland

12

14

 

77.4

Taiwan

13

18

 

Singapore

1

100.0

75.0

Austria

14

11

 

Hong Kong

2

91.5

75.0

Finland

15

17

 

Taiwan

3

90.0

74.7

Germany

16

16

 

S. Korea

4

75.7

73.8

China Mainland

17

15

 

Malaysia

5

73.5

73.4

New Zealand

18

19

 

Thailand

6

63.9

73.2

Malaysia

19

23

 

India

7

55.3

72.4

Israel

20

21

 

Brazil

8

52.6

(NB: The Scores are actually indices – 0 to 100 – generated for the unique purpose of constructing charts and graphics)

The rankings for 2008 are not comparable to those of 1989 because nations were then split into industrialized and emerging economies.