Hong Kong climbed two places to fifth in an annual global ranking of the world's most competitive economies, with an improved economic performance helping the SAR move up the table.

The World Competitiveness Yearbook 2024 was unveiled by the Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development on Tuesday, after researchers assessed data from 67 countries and regions.

The list ranked economies based on four main factors: economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure.

"Hong Kong returns to fifth place mainly because of improvements in economic performance, business efficiency, and infrastructure. In government efficiency, it slightly drops from second to third," the report said.

The report attributed Hong Kong's rise in economic performance, from 36th to 11th spot, to "steep increases" in the domestic economy and employment sub-factors.

The city topped the rankings in the international trade and business legislation sub-categories, while placing within the top five in five other areas - international investment, tax policy, finance, basic infrastructure and education.

A Hong Kong government spokesperson said the city's economy continued to recover after the pandemic, thanks to the "staunch support" from the central authorities.

The spokesman also noted the administration had introduced measures to boost market confidence and organised mega events to encourage tourism and spending, while working to attract overseas enterprises and talent to come to the SAR.

In a social media post, Chief Secretary Eric Chan said the latest rankings were "a recognition of the brilliant achievements" of the SAR government, alongside local and foreign talent and enterprises, in the city's development and economy.

He said high-quality talent and strategic companies from all over world had "voted with their feet" by coming to Hong Kong to seek opportunities, adding that officials had received more than 300,000 applications to various talent schemes by the end of May.

More than 120,000 people had arrived in Hong Kong, far beyond the initial target of attracting 35,000 per year, Chan added.

Singapore returned to the top spot for the first time since 2020, followed by Switzerland and Denmark, which placed first in the previous year's rankings. Mainland China climbed seven spots to place 14th.