IMD 2010 World Competitiveness Yearbook rankings: Israel is ranked 17th

Israel is up from 24th place in 2009. Singapore and Hong Kong have for the first time in decades, topped the USA
 
Singapore (1) and Hong Kong (2) have for the first time in decades, topped the USA (3) in IMD’s World Competitiveness Yearbook rankings of 58 countries, published last week.
 
The IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) is the world’s most renowned and comprehensive annual report on the competitiveness of nations, ranking and analyzing how a nation’s environment creates and sustains thecompetitiveness of enterprises.
 
In the first 10 places: Australia (5), Taiwan (8) and Malaysia (10) also benefit from strong demand in Asia. Switzerland (4) maintains an excellent position characterized by strong economic fundamentals (very low deficit, debt, inflation and unemployment) and a well-defended position on export markets. Sweden (6) and Norway (9) shine for the Nordic model, although Denmark (13) surprisingly loses ground, in particular due to the pessimistic mood expressed in the survey.
 
Israel is ranked 17th in the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2010 rankings, up from 24th place in 2009. Israel is ahead of China. 
 
The International Institute Management Development (IMD) at Lausanne, Switzerland, ranked Israel in first place in several categories, including its economy's soundness in the face of economic crises and in the functioning of its central bank.
 
The World Competitiveness Report ranks the 58 countries on 327 variables grouped into four competitiveness factors: economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency, and infrastructure.
 
Hard data are taken from international or national organizations, private institutes and partners, and survey data are drawn from the annual Executive Opinion Survey of 4,460 respondents. The Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce is World Competitiveness Report's representative in Israel.