美国再次成为全世界最具竞争力的经济体，这归功于它生机勃勃的创业文化，以及以促进发展和机遇的方式创新的能力。

以上结论是世界经济论坛（World Economic Forum）做出的。该论坛是设在瑞士的一个非营利组织，对各经济体的竞争力进行排名已有40年历史了。

美国超过了去年名列榜首的瑞士，自2008年以来首次重新位居第一。瑞士在竞争力指数排行榜上落到第四名，排在新加坡和德国后面、日本前面。

该论坛发布的报告指出：“创新已成为所有先进经济体所必需的，而且也成为越来越多的新兴国家的一项要务。”报告说，大多数经济体“正在奋力使创新切实成为一个发展引擎”。

报告还说，现在“全世界只有几个创新强国，其中包括德国、美国和瑞士”。

今年，世界经济论坛改变了评分模式，更加侧重于创新，并称其为生产力和增长的关键推动力。报告说：“各个政府正在努力了解是什么使一个国家具有创新力。”

竞争力的评分标准是从0分到100分。乍得得分最低，为35.5分；美国得分最高，为85.6分。

10个最具竞争力的经济体中有7个在美国和欧洲，另外3个在亚洲。排名最低的20个国家中有7个在非洲撒哈拉沙漠以南地区，该地区表现最好的是排名第49的毛里求斯。

在排行榜上名列前茅的多为高收入国家。前40名中的非高收入经济体只有马来西亚（第25）、中国（第28）和泰国（第38）。

一些收入水平相当的国家的经济竞争力排名却相去甚远。智利排名第33，而石油资源丰富的委内瑞拉却排在第127位。

The United States once again boasts the world’s most competitive economy, thanks to its vibrant entrepreneurial culture and capacity to innovate in ways that spur growth and opportunities.

That’s the judgment of the World Economic Forum, a Swiss nonprofit organization that has been ranking economies’ competitiveness for 40 years.

The United States moved ahead of last year’s Number 1, Switzerland, and into first place for the first time since 2008. The Swiss dipped to fourth on the competitiveness index, behind Singapore and Germany and ahead of Japan.

The forum, which convenes a gathering of world business and political leaders in Davos, Switzerland, each winter, rated 140 economies on 12 factors, among them institutions, market size, health, workers’ skills, infrastructure, business dynamism and innovation capability.

“Innovation has become an imperative for all advanced economies and a priority for a growing number of emerging countries,” the report says. The vast majority “are struggling to make innovation a meaningful engine of growth,” according to the report.

There “are only a few innovation powerhouses in the world, including Germany, the United States and Switzerland,” the report adds.

The forum altered the formula to place more emphasis this year on innovation, which it calls a critical driver of productivity and growth. “Governments are struggling to understand what makes a country innovative,” the report says.

Scores on the 0-to-100 competitiveness scale ranged from Chad’s 35.5 to the United States’ 85.6.

The United States and Europe are home to seven of the 10 most competitive economies; the three others are in Asia. Seventeen of the 20 countries at the bottom are in sub-Saharan Africa. That region’s best performer was 49th-ranked Mauritius.

High-income countries dominated the rankings. The only non-high-income economies in the Top 40 were those of Malaysia (25th), China (28th) and Thailand (38th).

Some countries with similar income levels were nonetheless far apart on the competitiveness of their economies. Chile ranked 33rd, while oil-rich Venezuela was 127th.