World Economic Forum ranks US among most economically unstable nations

[Naveed Yaseen]

GENEVA (September 09 2009): The United States fared badly in a new assessment of world economies, with the financial crisis accentuating its weakness as one of the most economically unstable nations, the World Economic Forum said Tuesday. In contrast with its overall ranking second only to Switzerland in the WEF's 2009 Global Competitiveness Report, the United States now placed 93rd among the 133 countries in terms of macroeconomic stability.

"The United States has built up large macro-economic imbalances over recent years," said the WEF, which hosts the annual Davos pow-wow of business and political leaders. "Repeated fiscal deficits have led to burgeoning levels of public indebtedness, which are presently being exacerbated by significant stimulus spending," it added. The widening government budget deficit and low national savings rates helped drag the United States down.

The White House has projected that its budget deficit would reach 9.05 trillion dollars for the 2010-2019 period. But the United States is not only grappling with a state deficit, its citizens also hold too much debt and insufficient savings, according to analysts. In the years leading up to the financial crisis, the country's national savings rate had dropped to almost zero.

"More generally, given that the financial crisis originated in large part in the United States, it is hardly surprising that there has been a weakening of the assessment of its financial market sophistication, dropping from ninth last year to 20th overall this year in that pillar," said the WEF. The United States also scored badly for the soundness of its banks, in 108th place, just ahead of Venezuela, Serbia and Vietnam.

Like the United States, the banking industries of Britain, Ireland and Iceland brought up the rear, as their financial centres all suffered in the crisis. Iceland's banks were ranked the fourth most unsound, rivalled only by Zimbabwe, Mongolia and Ukraine, while Britain was the ninth from last and Ireland the 13th worst.

While major Swiss banks also suffered in the economic crisis, Switzerland managed to come out top overall, overtaking the United States to lead the global competitiveness chart this year.

Researchers found that Switzerland had remained "relatively stable, whereas the United States has seen a weakening across a number of areas." Singapore moved up to third place from fifth a year ago, helped by strong government institutions, infrastructure and a focus on education. Nordic countries - Sweden, Finland and Denmark - took the fourth to sixth places, with strong macroeconomic stability and transparent institutions. Among the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) emerging giants, China performed best, gaining one place to 29th place. It remained 20 places ahead of India, thanks to its strong fiscal position.

India had "fairly well functioning institutions" but ranked poorly on health and primary education, macroeconomic stability and infrastructure. Brazil was boosted by its growing domestic market and one of the region's most developed financial centres, but it was weighed down by poor macroeconomic stability and its institutional environment. Russia was the only BRIC country to slide down the ranking this year, falling 12 places to 63rd. It was hit by structural weaknesses including a lack of government efficiency, judicial independence and property rights, according to the report.

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