A never-ending race

The United States ranked again as the world’s most competitive country and Venezuela as its least competitive in the 2014 World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) by Swiss business school IMD. And within the top 10 out of the 60 economies surveyed, there was little change compared with the ups and downs seen in the rest of the pack. In total, only seven countries kept their 2013 ranking — but four out of these seven were in the top ten most competitive economies. Besides the US at the top, these were Switzerland as runner up and Canada and the United Arab Emirates in positions seven and eight. Also Singapore, Hong Kong and Sweden made reappearances in places three to five. Of the other 50 countries in the 2014 rankings, 26 moved up and 22 fell. But only nine countries moved by five or more positions. Romania advanced eight places from 55 to 47 and