The United States is still the most competitive economy in the world, Denmark is the country best equipped to deal with the current world economic crisis, and the economic crisis has undoubtedly taken its toll on certain countries, including Ireland and Taiwan, both of which are dropping in competitiveness.

These are some of the results of IMD’s 2009 World Competitiveness Rankings - the world’s most renowned, comprehensive Annual Report on the competitiveness of nations - which sets out to rank and analyze how a nation’s environment creates and sustains the competitiveness of enterprises.