Ireland's competitiveness has improved slightly for this year, according to the latest Growth Competitiveness Index from the World Economic Forum. The country has moved up from 30th position to 26th which the forum says indicates sound relative growth prospects over the next five to eight years.
While domestic macroeconomic conditions and the quality of public institutions feeding into this measure place Ireland closer to the top 13, a relatively weaker ranking of 31st in the technology component of the index restricted the country's overall position.
A breakdown showed that among the worst areas of Irish performance were the quality of competition in the internet sector (55th), centralisation of economic policy-making (84th) and rail infrastructure (55th).
Among the best categories were access to credit (4th), judicial independence (5th) and quality of the educational system (3rd). The tax burden is the 10th lowest of the 117 countries.
Meanwhile, Nordic countries, the US and two Asian Tigers have kept their top berths in the World Economic Forum's annual ranking of competitive economies, published today.
Finland, which grabbed the number one slot from the US in 2003, stayed ahead again this year in the elite think tank's competitiveness index.
The US was in second place in the 117-country index, which was based on a poll of 11,000 'business leaders' and combined the macroeconomic context, innovation and use of technology, plus the quality of public institutions.
The US was followed by Sweden, Denmark, Taiwan and Singapore, with the remainder of the top 10 filled by Iceland, Switzerland, Norway and Australia.
'The Nordic countries have consolidated their position at the top of the league,' said Augusto Lopez-Claros, the WEF's chief economist. 'The main reason is these countries enjoy very good management. They do not have fiscal problems like France, Germany or Italy,' he said.
Faced with an aging population, Nordic countries are reforming now in order to maintain their welfare systems, he said. They also have low levels of corruption and a stable legal framework, which helps businesses operate.
While the Nordics' high taxes are often cited as a concern, these have not harmed their ability to compete, the WEF said. 'They make very efficient use of tax revenue: the money taken by taxes is put back into the economy with a plus, with money given to infrastructure or education,' the Forum said.
Among other European states, Britain ranked 13th, Germany 15th, Spain 29th, France 30th and Italy 47th. Estonia was the highest-ranked former communist state, in 20th place.
Thanks to economic policies and openness to new technology, Taiwan and Singapore, which were also in last year's top 10, have continued to outdistance Japan. Japan droppped from ninth to 12th place because of bad management of public finances. South Korea climbed fast, up from 29th to 17th. But Hong Kong slipped down the ranking, from 21st to 28th. China slipped three places from 46th to 49th, continuing last year's slide. India rose from 55th to 50th.
In Latin America, Chile outstripped its neighbours, thanks to 'remarkably competent' economic policies and 'EU levels' of transparency and efficiency, the WEF said. Chile was 23rd, a full 31 places ahead of the next-best Latin American country, Uruguay. Mexico and Brazil fell to 55th and 65th place, because of declining public institutions, weakened judicial independence and favouritism of government officials, said the WEF.
Elsewhere, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar ranked 18th and 19th.
South Africa (42nd), Botswana (48th), Mauritius (52nd) and Ghana (59th) were the best-placed African economies.
Zimbabwe has the world's worst ranking for the quality of its macroeconomic environment. The Forum called the country a 'particulary sad case whose quick desent to the bottom of the rankings reflects the continued deterioration of the institutional climate, including the disappearance of property rights and the corruption of the rule of law.
