Date 02.06.2012

Lausanne, Switzerland – IMD business school , a Switzerland based global leader in executive education, has released the results of its yearly World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY). Countries are evaluated and ranked in the WCY in terms of how efficient they handle their economy and human resources to boost their wealth.

In Europe, the most competitive countries were found to have export oriented industries and financial control, the top nations being Switzerland (3), Sweden (5) and Germany (9). In the meantime, the economies of Ireland (20), Iceland (26) and Italy (40) are seen to have better chances of attracting investments that can help them improve compared to Spain (39), Portugal (41) and Greece (58).

This 2012, 59 economies were assessed and findings show that the most competitive nations are Hong Kong, the United States of America (U.S.A.) and Switzerland (refer to the table on page 2 for complete rankings). The U.S.A. maintains its place in the heart of global competitiveness in the face of all its obstacles due to its exceptional economic supremacy, the self-motivation of its businesses as well as its capability to advance.

Professor Stephane Garelli, director of the IMD World Competitiveness Centre said that the competitiveness of the U.S.A. impacts the whole world greatly due to its special way of networking and cooperation with every developed or developing economy. She also stated that no other country can have such a strong "pull effect" in a global scale. Professor Garelli added that Europe is weighed down with austerity and disjointed political guidance and is barely a reliable option, whereas a South-South bloc of up-and-coming markets is still progressing. She concluded that if the U.S.A. competes, it is an achievement for the world.

Several nations are not yet protected from instability which has affected the standings of China (23), India (35) and Brazil (46), while Russia (48) only advanced one place. It is only Hong Kong (1), Malaysia (14) and Korea (22) that moved forward among Asian countries. Furthermore, it is only Mexico (37) that progressed in Latin America.

THE 2012 WORLD COMPETITIVENESS YEARBOOK RANKING

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