The U.S. economy may still be struggling to recover from a recession that began three years ago, but there is a silver lining. According to business consulting firm AlixPartners, a weak dollar and rising wages in China have helped U.S. manufacturers close the competitiveness gap with their Chinese counterparts for the first time since 2007.
"Five years ago, China was clearly the destination you wanted to be in," Ivo Naumann, Managing Director at AlixPartners in Hong Kong told CNBC on Friday. "What happened over the last couple of years that advantage of China has by and large been eroded, so what we are seeing now is, of course, that the U.S. is becoming awfully competitive again."
AlixPartners said it compared the total cost to produce a variety of manufactured goods in the U.S. with 12 other countries, including China. It found that Mexico remained the cheapest place for U.S. companies looking to outsource manufacturing. The firm tracked changes in seven key cost drivers including exchange rates, freight costs, labor and raw materials.
Naumann said China's competitiveness had slipped because of rising wages and the strengthening of the yuan, which has gained 4 percent against the dollar this year.
Source: CNBC
http://www.cnbc.com/id/45517969
etitive again.
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