Ireland has dropped from ninth place to 11th in a list of the world's most competitive smaller countries.
In a report compiled by Swiss business school IMD, Finland topped the list, with Singapore second and Denmark third.
But Ireland's ranking dropped in all four categories.
Ireland fared worst in distribution infrastructure, such as roads and trains, which was described as generally inefficient. Ireland also propped up the list under the internet access category.
Other areas where Ireland scored badly included alcohol and drug abuse in the work place, health infrastructure, electricity costs for business and the pupil-teacher ratio in primary education. In the economic section, Ireland was 25th of 29 for inflation.
Ireland's best performances were in the corporate tax, investment incentives, literacy and higher education categories.
