GENEVA: Finland remains the world's most competitive economy, according to a just-released report from the World Economic Forum (WEF).

This is the third time Finland has topped the rankings in the last four years.

The United States remained in second place, followed by Sweden, China's Taiwan region, Denmark and Norway.

Britain, Japan, Chile, Canada and Estonia all gained ground in the rankings contained in WEF's Global Competitiveness Report 2004-2005 which was published last Wednesday.

"The Nordic countries are characterized by excellent macroeconomic management overall," said Augusto Lopez-Claros, chief economist and director of WEF's Global Competitiveness Programme.

Britain moved up four places, to No 11, in the overall rankings, while Italy dropped to 47th, the lowest rank among the EU-15.

China, which fell two places, to No 46, was regarded as having a stable macroeconomic environment, but weak institutional underpinnings, the report said.

China's Taiwan region, in fourth place, and Singapore, in seventh, were the highest-ranked economies in Asia.

Taiwan had an unusually high rank in the area of technology - second only to the United States - while Singapore had the top rank in terms of the quality of its macroeconomic environment, a position it has held for a number of years.

Japan continued to gain ground and crossed the top-10 threshold, to ninth place.

With the exception of Chile and Argentina, the economies in Latin America exhibited worsening levels of competitiveness.

While a large number of countries in sub Saharan Africa held positions in the lower half of the rankings, South Africa, at 41, led the region in the global ranking. It showed an overall improvement on last year's performance.

The list was drawn from the results of an Executive Opinion Survey, a comprehensive survey conducted by WEF, which, this year, polled more than 8,700 business leaders in 104 economies worldwide.

The survey was designed to capture a broad range of factors, that affect an economy's business environment, and which are key determinants of sustained economic growth.

"The Global Competitiveness Report - now in its 25th year of publication - has become a primary source of information on the strengths and weaknesses of over 100 economies, accounting for the bulk of global GNP (gross national product)," said Klaus Schwab, WEF's founder and executive chairman.

Agencies via Xinhua

(Business Weekly 10/20/2004 page19)