The World Economic Forum (WEF) released their Global Competitiveness Report last week. Compiled by Michael Porter of Harvard University and Klaus Schwab of the WEF, it clearly shows the impact of the last year’s market turbulence.
In the preface, Klaus Schwab sums up the current world pretty well:
“This year’s Global Competitiveness Report is being released at a time of multiple shocks to the global economy. The subprime mortgage crisis and the ensuing credit crunch, combined with rising inflation worldwide and the consequent slowdown in demand in many advanced economies, has engendered significant uncertainty about the short-term outlook for the world economy. Global growth is slowing, and it is not yet clear when the effects of the present crisis will subside.”
Within the report, they rate how sound the banking
system is for each country of the world based upon the opinions of executives
which creates an index where banks are marked between 1 (insolvent and possibly
requiring a government bailout) and 7 (healthy, with sound balance sheets).
According to the report, Britain’s banking system has pretty much totally collapsed from being the world’s fifth soundest to being 44th, just below El Salvador and Peru.
Oh dear.
So let’s move our money to America?
Nope. The USA is 40th, behind Barbados and Namibia.
Who comes out on top?
Canada.
I’m off to join some bears over there.
Here’s the top 10:
1. Canada
2. Sweden
3. Luxembourg
4. Australia
5. Denmark
6. Netherlands
7. Belgium
8. New Zealand
9. Ireland
10. Malta
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