Ireland remains in 29th place in terms of global competitiveness but is ranked last out of 142 countries over its budget balance, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Switzerland remains the world's most competitive economy, the Geneva-based forum's Global Competitiveness Report 2011/2012 finds.
In 2009, Ireland was in 25th place in the WEF's ranking while a year earlier it was ranked 22nd in terms of global competitiveness.
The report says the country continues to benefit from a number of strengths such as its "innovative business culture" and its education system. However, Ireland scores badly in terms of its macroeconomic environment, its banking system and finances.
It says the most problematic factors when doing business in Ireland include access to financing, inefficient government bureaucracy, restrictive labour regulations and infrastructure deficits.
The country is ranked in 10th place overall in terms of its health and primary education and in 22nd place for its higher education and training. The country is also ranked 13th in terms of goods and in 17th for its labour market.
In addition, Ireland is placed 22nd for business sophistication and 23rd for innovation.
But the study says the country’s macroeconomic environment "continues to raise significant concern".
Ireland is ranked last of the 142 countries sampled in terms of its budget balance while the country’s financial market ranking has fallen from 7th place three years ago to 115th in the latest report, due to its budget deficit.
Singapore is the 2nd most competive economy in the world, according to the WEF rankings. Sweden has overtaken the US this year to be ranked 3rd place overall in the latest report. Other Nordic countries also perform well with Finland in 4th place, Denmark in 8th and Norway 16th.
The US continues its decline for the third year in a row, falling one place to fifth
while the UK has moved up one place to 10th position overall.
Germany maintains a strong position within the euro zone, although it goes down one position to sixth place, while the Netherlands (7th) improves by one position in the rankings, France drops three places to 18th, and Greece continues its downward trend to 90th.
The latest report shows emerging economies continue to close the competitiveness gap with OECD countries.
China, which is ranked 26th place overall, continues to lead the way among large developing economies, improving by one more place and solidifying its position among the top 30.
Among the four other 'BRICS' economies, South Africa (50th) and Brazil (53rd) move upwards while India (56th) and Russia (66th) experience small declines. Several Asian economies perform strongly, with Japan (9th) and Hong Kong SAR (11th) also in the top 20.
Chad, Haiti, Burundi, Angola and Yemen were ranked the worse performing economies in the world in terms of competitiveness.
“After a number of difficult years, a recovery from the economic crisis is tentatively emerging, although it has been very unequally distributed: much of the developing world is still seeing relatively strong growth, despite some risk of overheating, while most advanced economies continue to experience sluggish recovery, persistent unemployment and financial vulnerability, with no clear horizon for improvement,” said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the WEF.
“The complexity of today’s global economic environment has made it more important than ever to recognise and encourage the qualitative as well as the quantitative aspects of growth, integrating such concepts as inclusiveness and environmental sustainability to provide a fuller picture of what is needed and what works.”
The WEF rankings are based on a dozen measures of competitiveness, including institutions, infrastructure, health and education, market size and the macroeconomic environment.
