Chile remains the leading economy in terms of competitiveness in Latin America and the Caribbean for one year, over Mexico, Colombia and Argentina, according to a report released Wednesday by the World Economic Forum (WEF in its Spanish acronym).
Located at position 26 of the Forum’s annual ranking of the level of competitiveness, the country ranks among those with more advanced economies that has one of the most developed and sophisticated financial markets. ”
So says the Global Competitiveness Report 2007-2008, developed through a study of 131 countries and surveys of some 11,000 executives of the states analyzed.
According to the document, the United States is the world’s most competitive country, followed by Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Finland and Singapore.
Besides Chile, Puerto Rico, at position 36, Costa Rica (63) and Mexico (52) are among the leaders of Latin America in the ranking.
“Since the last major financial crisis in 1995, Mexico has made significant progress towards macroeconomic stability, while it has shown high efficiency in exploiting the potential of its large domestic market,” says the report.
However, the WEF stresses that “concerns about governance, lack of security and a poor education system still require further efforts to achieve greater international competitiveness” in Mexico.
Brazil, meanwhile, won 72 of the listing because, for their “remarkable improvements in recent years in the soundness of public finances and reducing public debt, but its competitiveness is still low compared to large economies.
For its part, Argentina, which now occupies the place 85 – “indisputably has recovered from the economic crisis of 2001,” although “their indicators reflect doubts about the continuity of economic policies, bureaucracy and lack of transparency in the public sector, “says the report.
Colombia, at position 69, yet recorded a competitiveness index “away from the most dynamic economies in the world.”
According to the head of research for Latin America, Irene Mia, this is mainly due to the quality of state government, a poor infrastructure and poor market factors, ”
The WEF, a private institution based in Switzerland, famous for its annual meeting in Davos, the classification of countries according to a Global Competitiveness Index developed by the Spanish economist Xavier Sala i Martin.
This indicator takes into account up to 12 pillars of the economies, which are institutions, infrastructure, education, innovation, technology, market size and macroeconomic stability.
