World Economic Forum ranking is mixed bag for Central America

The World Economic Forum's latest edition of the Global Competitiveness Report, published today, uses new yardsticks to measure the progress of 140 national economies.

Costa Rica, at number 55 and Panama in 64 have relatively high rankings. The other Central American countries -- Guatemala (96), El Salvador (98), Honduras (101) and Nicaragua (104) have lowly places in the list.

Chile, at 33, is the best placed Latin American country, followed by Mexico at 46. The United States occupies the number one spot in the ranking.