WASHINGTON — A lack of economic stability highlighted by a soaring national debt, combined with a lack of trust in government by the business community, helped drop the U.S. two notches to seventh in a ranking of national global competitiveness.
For the fourth straight year, Switzerland topped the list, which was released Wednesday by the World Economic Forum. Also beating the U.S. in the 2012-13 rankings of 144 national economies were Singapore, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany.
Britain, Hong Kong and Japan rounded out the top 10 in the rankings done by the group, which is best known for its annual gathering of economic and political leaders in Davos, Switzerland.
Competitiveness is determined based on a dozen factors, including the strength of a nation’s public and private institutions, the state of its infrastructure, the quality of its education and its ability to foster innovation.
The U.S. actually improved its overall score from last year, but continued to slip down the rankings as its improvement was outpaced this year by the Netherlands and Germany.
The U.S. ranked fourth on the 2010-11 list and fifth on the 2011-12 list.