In the annual ranking by IMD World Competitiveness, Singapore has dethroned the United States for the first time in nine years to become the most competitive economy globally. Another Asian nation Hong Kong SAR has overtaken the US, which now has slipped to the third spot. Some of the reasons cited for the fall of the US as per the same report include higher fuel prices, decline in exports and volatility in the value of dollar. While Asia-pacific nations emerged due to business-oriented policies, advanced technological infrastructure support, skilled workforce and openness with respect to immigration.

Notably, India ranks 43rd in the list, just one position higher than the previous year's ranking of 44.

Top 10 most competitive economies globally

Apart from Singapore, Hong Kong SAR and the US, Switzerland and the UAE have grabbed the title among the top-5 most competitive economies.

Other nations that have made it to the list of top 10 most competitive economies include Netherlands, Denmark Sweden, Qatar and Ireland. Qatar has made it to the list for the first time in more than 5 years.

For the ranking the IMD considers as many as 253 factors including GDP, corruption level, unemployment, government expenditure etc.

World's fastest growing cities are based out of India

While India does not feature even in the top 10 most competitive economies globally, all of the world's fastest growing cities are in India namely Surat, Agra, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Tiruppur, Rajkot, Tiruchirapalli, Chennai and Vijayawada.

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