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| Color Coding Key | |
|---|---|
| GREEN | Ranked 1st for statistic |
| RED | Ranked last for statistic |
The United States ranks as the fifth most competitive economy in the index and has made recent improvements along with other countries in its current accounts balance.
| Global Competitiveness Report | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Competitiveness By Rank | Basic Requirements | Efficiency Enhancers | Innovation and Sophistication Factors | |
| Australia | 21 | 15 | 14 | 26 |
| Canada | 13 | 16 | 6 | 24 |
| Denmark | 12 | 12 | 16 | 10 |
| France | 22 | 26 | 19 | 20 |
| Germany | 4 | 8 | 10 | 3 |
| Italy | 43 | 53 | 43 | 5 |
| Japan | 6 | 24 | 8 | 2 |
| Netherlands | 5 | 7 | 9 | 6 |
| Norway | 11 | 6 | 11 | 13 |
| Sweden | 9 | 13 | 12 | 7 |
| United Kingdom | 10 | 25 | 5 | 9 |
| United States | 3 | 30 | 1 | 4 |
| Global Competitiveness Report | Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Competitiveness by rank | Industrial Production Index | Current Accounts Balance | Current Accounts Balance per capita | Balance of Trade | Balance of Trade per capita | |
| Australia | 21 | 119.1 | -8,510 | -370 | 1.17 | -59 |
| Canada | 13 | 94.1 | -14,086 | -409 | .33 | 10 |
| Denmark | 12 | 87.5 | 21,690 | 3,926 | 1.09 | 197 |
| France | 22 | 88.6 | -11,095 | -173 | -7.21 | -113 |
| Germany | 4 | 113.6 | 46,590 | 574 | 21.87 | 270 |
| Italy | 43 | 81 | 320 | 5 | 4.36 | 74 |
| Japan | 6 | 91.9 | 782,000 | 6,146 | -8.13 | -64 |
| Netherlands | 5 | 109.5 | 20,124 | 1,194 | 6.06 | 360 |
| Norway | 11 | 84.7 | 84,230 | 17,382 | 6.67 | 1,376 |
| Sweden | 9 | 90.7 | 62,040 | 6,454 | .42 | 44 |
| United Kingdom | 10 | 86.6 | -14,512 | -228 | -11.96 | 188 |
| United States | 3 | 103.8 | -106,140 | -332 | -53.16 | -166 |
Sources:
World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Index, 2016-17. Competitiveness based on survey which accumulated 12 different pillars, including infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, education, market efficiency, technological readiness, and innovation.
View the WEF report online.
The industrial production index is based on 2000 = 100, for August 2013 (updated monthly). 
Current Accounts Balance, in millions US Dollars, for August 2013 (updated monthly).
Balance of Trade is Total Exports less Imports of Goods, Current Prices, in billions US Dollars, for May or June 2013 (updated monthly).
Indices are derived by summing constant price estimates of sales (for the different categories), other operating revenue and changes in the level of stocks of finished goods and work-in-progress.
Notes:
Industrial Production Index is sensitive to base years. The US has high deficits despite robust industrial production.
The Stanford Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality has five objectives: to monitor trends in poverty and inequality, to support scientific analysis of poverty and inequality, to develop sciecce-based policy on poverty and inequality, to disseminate data and research on poverty and inequality, and to train the next generation of scholars, policy analysts, and politicians. Their magazine, Pathways, available both on the web and as a hardcopy, reports on trends in poverty and inequality, summarizes cutting-edge research, evaluates key interventions, develops bold visions for the future, and stages debates among top commentators.
Needed:
International Payments Deficit: Need some measure of structural imbalance of payments, that is, how much is a country borrowing or lending to keep its total payments in balance. The imbalance is what needs to be financed after balance of trade, balance of services, direct investment transactions (direct private investment, stock, loans, dividends, interest, and capital gains), private remittances, tourism, and other transactions not a result of an imbalance of payments.
The current account measures most of this issue. The US has the biggest deficit of any nation. Spain has the next largest deficit, less than 1/7 of the US, and it is greatly offset by major tourism.
Given some natural volatility, a five year or three year average could be used.
Deficits are usually financed with short-term loans from payment-surplus countries. Short term lenders are usually foreign banks, central banks, and sovereign funds (controlled by a national government).
Average age of machine tools and similar industrial equipment; a leading indicator of future competitiveness.