Global Competitiveness Index 2008-2009 - Countries Ranked Highest to Lowest Score

			         2008-2009	2007-2008	
Rank	Country/Economy	            score	   rank
-------	--------------------------	          --------------	----------------
  1	United States		5.74	1
  2	Switzerland		5.61	2
  3	Denmark			5.58	3
  4	Sweden			5.53	4
  5	Singapore			5.53	7
  6	Finland			5.50	6
  7	Germany			5.46	5
  8	Netherlands		5.41	10
  9	Japan			5.38	8
10	Canada			5.37	13
11	Hong Kong SAR		5.33	12
12	United Kingdom		5.30	9
13	Korea, Rep.		5.28	11
14	Austria			5.23	15
15	Norway			5.22	16
16	France			5.22	18
17	Taiwan, China		5.22	14
18	Australia			5.20	19
19	Belgium			5.14	20
20	Iceland			5.05	23
21	Malaysia			5.04	21
22	Ireland			4.99	22
23	Israel			4.97	17
24	New Zealand		4.93	24
25	Luxembourg		4.85	25
26	Qatar			4.83	31
27	Saudi Arabia		4.72	35
28	Chile			4.72	26
29	Spain			4.72	29
30	China			4.70	34
31	United Arab Emirates		4.68	37
32	Estonia			4.67	27
33	Czech Republic		4.62	33
34	Thailand			4.60	28
35	Kuwait			4.58	30
36	Tunisia			4.58	32
37	Bahrain			4.57	43
38	Oman			4.55	42
39	Brunei Darussalam		4.54	n/a
40	Cyprus			4.53	55
41	Puerto Rico		4.51	36
42	Slovenia			4.50	39
43	Portugal			4.47	40
44	Lithuania			4.45	38
45	South Africa		4.41	44
46	Slovak Republic		4.40	41
47	Barbados			4.40	50
48	Jordan			4.37	49
49	Italy			4.35	46
50	India			4.33	48
51	Russian Federation		4.31	58
52	Malta			4.31	56
53	Poland			4.28	51
54	Latvia			4.26	45
55	Indonesia			4.25	54
56	Botswana			4.25	76
57	Mauritius			4.25	60
58	Panama			4.24	59
59	Costa Rica		4.23	63
60	Mexico			4.23	52
61	Croatia			4.22	57
62	Hungary			4.22	47
63	Turkey			4.15	53
64	Brazil			4.13	72
65	Montenegro		4.11	82
66	Kazakhstan		4.11	61
67	Greece			4.11	65
68	Romania			4.10	74
69	Azerbaijan			4.10	66
70	Vietnam			4.10	68
71	Philippines			4.09	71
72	Ukraine			4.09	73
73	Morocco			4.08	64
74	Colombia			4.05	69
75	Uruguay			4.04	75
76	Bulgaria			4.03	79
77	Sri Lanka			4.02	70
78	Syria			3.99	80
79	El Salvador		3.99	67
80	Namibia			3.99	89
81	Egypt			3.98	77
82	Honduras			3.98	83
83	Peru			3.95	86
84	Guatemala			3.94	87
85	Serbia			3.90	91
86	Jamaica			3.89	78
87	Gambia, The		3.88	102
88	Argentina			3.87	85
89	Macedonia, FYR		3.87	94
90	Georgia			3.86	90
91	Libya			3.85	88
92	Trinidad and Tobago		3.85	84
93	Kenya			3.84	99
94	Nigeria			3.81	95
95	Moldova			3.75	97
96	Senegal			3.73	100
97	Armenia			3.73	93
98	Dominican Republic		3.72	96
99	Algeria			3.71	81
100	Mongolia			3.65	101
101	Pakistan			3.65	92
102	Ghana			3.62	n/a
103	Suriname			3.58	113
104	Ecuador			3.58	103
105	Venezuela			3.56	98
106	Benin			3.56	108
107	Bosnia and Herzegovina	3.56	106
108	Albania			3.55	109
109	Cambodia			3.53	110
110	Cote d'Ivoire		3.51	n/a
111	Bangladesh		3.51	107
112	Zambia			3.49	122
113	Tanzania			3.49	104
114	Cameroon			3.48	116
115	Guyana			3.47	126
116	Tajikistan			3.46	117
117	Mali			3.43	115
118	Bolivia			3.42	105
119	Malawi			3.42	n/a
120	Nicaragua			3.41	111
121	Ethiopia			3.41	123
122	Kyrgyz Republic		3.40	119
123	Lesotho			3.40	124
124	Paraguay			3.40	121
125	Madagascar		3.38	118
126	Nepal			3.37	114
127	Burkina Faso		3.36	112
128	Uganda			3.35	120
129	Timor-Leste		3.15	127
130	Mozambique		3.15	128
131	Mauritania			3.14	125
132	Burundi			2.98	130
133	Zimbabwe			2.88	129
134	Chad			2.85	131

Institutions
Public Institutions
• Property rights
• Intellectual property protection
• Diversion of public funds
• Public trust of politicians
• Judicial independence
• Favoritism in decisions of government officials
• Wastefulness of government spending
• Burden of government regulation
• Efficiency of legal framework
• Transparency of government policymaking
• Business costs of terrorism
• Business costs of crime and violence
• Organized crime
• Reliability of police services
Private Institutions
• Ethical behavior of firms
• Strength of auditing and reporting standards
• Efficacy of corporate boards
• Protection of minority shareholders' interests
Infrastructure
• Quality of overall infrastructure
• Quality of roads
• Quality of railroad infrastructure
• Quality of port infrastructure
• Quality of air transport infrastructure
• Available seat kilometers
• Quality of electricity supply
• Telephone lines
Macroeconomic Stability
• Government surplus/deficit
• National savings rate
• Inflation
• Interest rate spread
• Government debt
Health and Primary Education
• Business impact of malaria
• Malaria incidence
• Business impact of tuberculosis
• Tuberculosis incidence
• Business impact of HIV/AIDS
• HIV prevalence
• Infant mortality
• Life expectancy
• Quality of primary education
• Prmary enrollment
• Education expenditure
Higher Education and Training
• Secondary enrollment
• Tertiary enrollment
• Quality of the educational system
• Quality of math and science education
• Quality of management tools
• Internet access in schools
• Local availability of research and training services
• Extent of staff training
Goods Market Efficiency
• Intensity of local competition
• Extent of market dominance
• Effectiveness of anti-monopoly policy
• Extent and effect of taxation
• No. of procedures required to start a business
• Time required to start a business
• Agricultural policy costs
• Total tax rate
• Prevalence of trade barriers
• Prevalence of foreign ownership
• Business impact of rules on FDI
• Burden of customs procedures
• Imports
• Trade-weighted tariff rate
• Degree of customer orientation
• Buyer sophistication
Labor Market Efficiency
• Cooperaton in labor-employer relations
• Hiring and firing practices
• Flexibility of wage determination
• Firing costs
• Rigidity of employment
• Non-wage labor costs
• Pay and productivity
• Reliance on professional management
• Brain drain
• Female participation in labor force
Financial Market Sophistication
• FInancial market sophostication
• Financing through local equity market
• Ease of access to loans
• Venture capital availability
• Restriction on capital flows
• Strength of investor protection
• Regulation of securities exchanges
• Soundness of banks
• Legal rights index
Technological Readines
• Availability of latest technologies
• Firm-level technology absorpsion
• Laws relating to ICT
• FDI and technology transfer
• Mobile telephone subscribers
• Internet users
• Personal computers
• Broadband internet subscribers
Market Size
• Domestic market size
• Foreign market size
Business Sophistication
• Local supplier quantity
• Local supplier quality
• State of cluster development
• Nature of competitive advantage
• Value chain breadth
• Control of international distribution
• Production process sophistication
• Extent of marketing
• Willingness to delegate authority
• Capacity for innovation
• Quality of scientific research institutions
• Company spending on R&D
• University-indstry research collaboration
• Government procurement of advanced tech products
• Availability of scientists and engineers
• Utility patents
Country Rankings

NOTE: The table on this page is re-published from data provided by World Economic Forum. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of competitiveness scores information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about the global competitiveness index should be addressed to the World Economic Forum.