US tumbles in global competitiveness ranking

The U.S. fell in the Institute for Management Development’s (IMD) World Competitiveness ranking — an annual report on the world’s economies — for the second consecutive year.

After dropping to third and conceding the top spot to Singapore in 2019, America tumbled even further in the rankings this year, sliding all the way down to 10.

The IMD, a business school in Switzerland, explained in an article about its results that the U.S.’s nearly two-year trade war with China hurt both countries.

“Trade wars have damaged both China and the USA’s economies, reversing their positive growth trajectories,” the IMD said. “China this year dropped to 20th position from 14th last year.”

The IMD has been conducting its annual report since the late 1980s. When compiling the rankings, the IMD World Competitiveness Center looks at a long list of criteria, including government spending and employment. Additionally, the group added criteria this year to take into account the importance of meeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals — a list of 17 goals agreed upon in 2015 by the member nations of the body to be achieved by 2030.

“The criteria provide a perception of where the economy stands with respect to different sustainable goals that need to be satisfied in 10 years, such as education and the environment, inclusion and empowerment, aging and health,” the statement read.

Arturo Bris, director of the center, said in the statement that the rankings reflect the ability of smaller economies to handle significant crises, such as the current coronavirus pandemic.

“The benefit of small economies in the current crisis comes from their ability to fight a pandemic and from their economic competitiveness,” Bris said. “In part, these may be fed by the fact it is easy to find social consensus.”

Canada, the United States’ bordering ally, jumped from 13th in 2019 to eighth this year.

The top five countries were Singapore, Denmark, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Hong Kong. The IMD attributed Singapore’s success to its “robust international trade and investment, employment and labor market measures.”