Brazil still blazing a trail

A new survey has confirmed once again that Brazil is on the right economic track…

According to the latest World Competitiveness Yearbook from Swiss-based business school IMD, Brazil's economy has become more competitive over the last year.

Brazil, Latin America's largest economy, jumped six spots to 43rd place out of 55 countries. That was an improvement over its previous ranking of 49 out of 55 countries in last year's survey.

Brazil's improvement was largely due to a jump of 11 places in the category on business efficiency - from 40 last year to 29 this year. That made Brazil the second-best country in this category.

Brazil also improved its ranking in economic performance (up six spots to 41st place) and government efficiency (up three spots to 51st place).  These improvements helped offset a decline in infrastructure - where Brazil fell one spot to 50th place.

Chile and Peru were the most competitive economies in Latin America, while Venezuela and Argentina remained the least competitive.