Genève. Latin America may still largely improve its’ economic competitiveness, said World Competitiveness Centre’s director, Arturo Bris, while introducing the annual ranking elaborated by the Swiss centre of studies.

“Latin America’s evaluation for this year is not very different from last’s year. Some countries, as Venezuela and Argentina, remain at the bottom of the ranking, while other, as Chile or Mexico, are well oriented towards competitiveness”, the expert established during an interview with Efe.

México, which is number 41 in the ranking, experienced a “disappointing growth, despite benefits expected from the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)”. However, he pointed out that “experts agree on the fact that this is a temporary decline within a generally positive tendency.”

In a survey performed among executives from different countries, the greatest strengths they observed in Mexico were: its qualified workforce, the competitive costs, its economic dynamism and a proper business environment.

Another case outlined by Bris was Brazil’s, a country which is not having much space to counteract the negative effects of foreign exchange rates.

“Brazil’s big mistake has been promoting economic growth without creating the necessary economic institutions, nor proper physical infrastructure, for making such growth sustainable”, commented the economist.

“Up to some point, those countries where growth overtakes institutional development, as for example China, purely economic measures lose effectiveness”, Bris added. He later stated what Brazil needs: better paths, education, financial regulation, business values, plus more transparency and being open to foreign investments.

Bris said that all these are factors “that demand time to change”.

Brazil has gone backwards three positions in one year in the competitiveness ranking and is now located in place number 54.

Chile is number 31. The expert states that this country’s prosperity is due to the reform it made on the educational system, “even at the expenses of rising corporations’ taxes”.

About Argentina (position number 58), he highlighted that “its’ economic development is usually non-cyclic and has a tendency to perform badly when the rest of the world is going up.”

The increase of public debt when the rest of the world is experiencing the contrary process, generates, among other things, that the business community holds a “poor impression” of Argentina.

At a global level, the ranking establishes that US is the most competitive country in the world due to the resistance of it’s economy, the recovery of employment levels and being a leader in the fields of technology and infrastructure.

It is followed by Switzerland, Singapore and Hong Kong –three small economies that owe their prosperity to exportations, the efficiency of their companies and innovation-, and Sweden, Germany, Canada, Arab Emirates, Denmark and Norway.