Chile leads Latin American in the global competitiveness indexPublished: September 15, 2009
The report prepared by the World Economic Forum highlights the "timely liberalization and openness" of Chile as well as its institutional transparency, infrastructure and pension funds. Likewise, the report highlights the success and progress of other countries in Latin America.
This report was presented before a forum at the Annual Meeting of New Champions 2009 in Dalian, a large port city in China. The report highlighted that the Latin American Region has been protected from the crisis thanks to the sound macroeconomic policy that has been instituted in the region over the past several years. Moreover, after a 1.9% contraction this year, Latin America is projected to grow at a rate of 3.1% in 2010, which is faster than the projected global rate of 1.9%.
Seven economies in Latin America and the Caribbean are positioned in the first half of the rankings. These countries include Chile (30), Puerto Rico (42), Barbados (44), Costa Rica (55), Brazil (56), Panama (59), Mexico (60) and Uruguay (65). Chile remains the leading country in the region despite falling to the 30th spot and maintains several advantages in Latin America, some of which include its institutions, macroeconomic stability, efficiency in the labor and production market and the increasing sophistication of its financial markets. One of the few negative points mentioned was the quality of its education system.
Irene Mia, an expert for the World Economic Forum, stressed that holding the top rank among Latin American countries "reflects the various economic reforms that have been made, which have enabled Chile to display greater resistance against the crisis." Adding that, "In this context Chile is in the best position to address the crisis though the counter-cyclical policies it has maintained. Likewise, countries like Brazil and even Mexico were well prepared for the financial crisis and have maintained their economic position, despite their dependence on the United States."
The World Economic Forum report was written by six economists, coordinated by Xavier Sala-i-Martin of Columbia University (USA). The report was developed from over 13,000 responses by senior executives among analyzed countries.
Global rankingThe top ten countries remained the same as in the 2009 report. But after several years of occupying the number one spot, the United States has dropped to 2nd place while Switzerland took over the Nº 1 position as the world's most competitive economy.
The report states that while the Switzerland economy remained fairly stable despite the international crisis, the United States economy weakened in several areas. Its main weakness continues to be its macroeconomic stability, which dropped from the 66th to th 93rd spot. Furthermore, Singapore rose up to the third spot in the rankings. The report stated that "at a time when the confidence in governments around the world has fallen, the confidence in Singapore has risen."
Moreover, the Nordic countries, specifically, Sweden, Denmark and Finland hold next three positions and are followed Germany with the 7th position. Japan managed to climb two places to the Nº 8 spot, notably maintaining its performance, while others have fallen. Rounding out the top ten most competitive economies in the world are Canada and the Netherlands.
Sources:www.americaeconomia.comwww.economiaynegocios.cl