Israel is ranked 24th out of 57 countries in the World Competitiveness Scorecard for 2009, four places lower than in 2008, with a score of 73.425. The International Institute for Management Development (IMD) at Lausanne released the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2009 yesterday.
IMD analyzes competitiveness along 329 variables, grouped into four catagories: economic soundness, government efficiency, business, and infrastructures. Israel's rankings fell in all categories.
The US topped the 2009 rankings, followed by Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, and Denmark. Venezuela brought up the rear.
This year, due to the global financial crisis, IMD added a "stress test", aimed at examining how "countries can resist adversity and show resilience to weather the storm". Israel was ranked 20th, ahead of Japan (26), the US (28), and the UK (34).
The Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce represents IMD in Israel.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 21, 2009
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