News release: “The United States tops the overall ranking in The Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009, released today by the World Economic Forum. Switzerland is in second position followed by Denmark, Sweden and Singapore. European economies continue to prevail in the top 10 with Finland, Germany and the Netherlands following suit. The United Kingdom, while remaining very competitive, has dropped by three places and out of the top 10, mainly attributable to a weakening of its financial markets. The People’s Republic of China continues to lead the way among large developing economies, improving by four places this year and joining the top 30. All of the BRIC economies figure in the top half of the ranking, with China followed by India, Russia and Brazil.Several Asian economies perform strongly with Japan, Hong Kong SAR, Republic of Korea and Taiwan, China in the top 20. In Latin America, Chile is the highest ranked country, followed by Panama, Costa Rica and Mexico.”