Singapore replaces US at top of World Economic Forum competitiveness rankings

Hong Kong, the Netherlands and Switzerland made up the rest of the top five, according to the WEF survey published on Wednesday

The WEF also said central banks must take some blame for weak productivity, as their trillions of stimulus keep zombie firms alive

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Singapore replaced the US at top of WEF competitiveness rankings. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 9:12am, 9 Oct 2019Updated: 7:02pm, 9 Oct 2019

Singapore is now the world’s most competitive economy after beating the United States in an annual survey by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Hong Kong, the Netherlands, and Switzerland made up the rest of the top five, according to the Global Competitive Report 2019, which was published on Wednesday.

The 666-page report noted that there was growing uncertainty among business leaders in the US, who topped the charts last year. Trade openness has also declined there.

This year’s report focused its report on continued low productivity growth a decade after the financial crisis, calling this the US$10 trillion question – the amount injected by the world’s four major central banks through 2017. In line with others, its view is that while monetary stimulus helped pull the global economy out of recession, it wasn’t the solution for all problems.

Even though the US slid down by one position, the report noted that US still led the pack of European and North American countries, and remained “an innovation powerhouse”.