GENEVA - Singapore moved up to third place from fifth a year ago on a global ranking of competitiveness, helped by strong government institutions, infrastructure and a focus on education.

Taking the top spot was Switzerland, which knocked the United States off the position as the world's most competitive economy.

The World Economic Forum's (WEF) global competitiveness report 2009/2010 showed that economies with a large focus on financial services, such as the US, Britain and Iceland, were the losers in the financial crisis.

The WEF based its rankings on factors key to any country's prosperity. They include economic data such as growth, health data and the number of Internet users.

The study also factored in a survey among business leaders, assessing, for example, the government's efficiency or the flexibility of the labour market.