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The 2010 World Competitiveness Yearbook by Switzerland’s IMD business school has come out with historic results with Singapore ranked as the World’s Most Competitive Economy for the first time in over a decade, followed by Hong Kong and the US.

An analysis of the previous years’ rankings reveal that US has held the #1 position for 16 long years with Singapore and Hong Kong alternating the second and third places. According to IMD’s Professor Stephane Garelli,

“The results of the IMD’s World Competitiveness rankings 2010 have been strongly affected by unusual volatility in economic growth (GDP data), exchange rates (especially the dollar versus the Euro), financial assets (the financial crisis), trade and investment flows (because of the recession) and, finally, as a consequence, in employment figures (which also impact productivity). In a “reset” mode, world competitiveness is not just about improving performance, but also about damage control. Competitiveness highlights the relative position of nations in the pursuit of prosperity – but in a free-fall environment, the winners may simply be the ones who are the most resilient to downward forces.”

Singapore’s #1 ranking among 58 economies comes as no surprise, given the fact that it survived the economic downturn owing to a strong resilience package and nurtured its economy back to robust health. In fact the economy was expected to contract by 5% during 2009 but Singapore fared well and the economy contracted by only 2%. The 2010 Budget projected a GDP growth of 4.5%-6.5% but the central bank raised the forecast to 7-9%, when the economy was estimated to grow by 13% in the first quarter of 2010.

According to the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, Singapore ranked as #1 for business efficiency, #2 for government efficiency, #5 for economic performance and #11 for infrastructure. Singapore also fared well in a Debt Stress Test that was conducted by IMD. Singapore’s high rankings demonstrate the government’s commitment to building a pro-business climate for global investors and entrepreneurs. Also ranked as the World’s Easiest Place to Do Business in the World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business Report 2010, Singapore is becoming a preferred destination for businesses setup and expansion. Testimony to this are statistics that reveal the rising Singapore company registrations in January, 2010 as compared to December and November, 2009.

While most Western nations are still grappling with the aftermath of the economic crisis, Singapore and Hong Kong are marching ahead taking advantage of the robust economic growth in the region.

Here are the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2010 Results.

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