The United States has lost its top slot in a global ranking of economic competitiveness published yesterday because of mounting concern among businesses over its budget deficit and crumbling faith in its institutions.
The world's largest economy fell from first to sixth place in the World Economic Forum's annual survey.
The survey is based on interviews with 11,000 business leaders.
The harsh verdict comes a week after the International Monetary Fund highlighted a slowdown in the United States as the biggest threat to the world economy.
The UK slipped one place to 10th as one in five of the business leaders polled said that Britain had an "inadequately educated" workforce.
In its annual assessment of the competitiveness of 125 countries, the World Economic Forum said a number of weaknesses in the US, particularly related to macroeconomic imbalances and the institutional environment, were beginning to "erode the country's overall competitiveness potential".
It ranked just 69th out of 125 in terms of the basic health of its economy, with its health and primary education ranked 40th and the quality of its institutions 27th.
- INDEPENDENT
US falls from top spot for economic competitiveness
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