Download the 2009 report here. (PDF 92KB).
USA is still no 1.
IMD: "In a free-fall economy, competitiveness is also about how countries can resist adversity and show resilience to weather the storm (please refer to this year’s “Stress Test”). What is their ability to withstand “one-off events” such as today’s turmoil? For example, Japan comes out better than expected in 17th position, likewise Germany (13th) and the UK (21st). However, one must take into account that these rankings are based on a majority of statistics from 2008, especially the growth period of early 2008, and countries entered the economic crisis at different times."
I M D – World Competitiveness Yearbook – “Stress Test” for tough times 2009
The IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook includes for the first time a Stress Test of the 57 most developed economies focusing on their ability to recover from the actual economic situation. It shows that smaller nations, which are export-oriented, resilient and with stable socio-political environments are better equipped to benefit immediately from the recovery.
It underlines that dimensions such as flexibility on the labour market, trustworthiness of
managers and political stability are extremely important to secure readiness for change, which is of key importance for a successful recovery from the actual economic situation.
Thus Denmark finishes in first place in the rankings of the Stress Test, an analysis of which countries are better equipped to fare through the crisis and improve their competitiveness in the near future. In other words, the test is future oriented – it focuses on readiness and resilience in a period of world recession. The succeeding 4 places are taken by Singapore 2nd, Qatar 3rd, Norway 4th, Hong Kong 5th.
Although the economic forecasts are still weak this year, Denmark finishes first in part because of the strong resilience of business and government, and the long-established stability of its society, combined with low public debt and unemployment rate.
However, only the good performance of the very large exporters such as the US, Germany, China or Japan will send a credible message to the world that the worst is over – a change that everybody will be able to believe in.
Despite finishing first in the overall World Competitiveness Yearbook rankings, the United States finishes 28th in the Stress Test, underlining the concern of the market with the depth of the crisis and the time that it will take to solve it.
Povl Tiedemann
May 2009
Posted by: Povl Tiedemann | Wednesday, 27 May 2009 at 02:54 AM