Ireland remains the 22nd most competitive economy in the world, unchanged from last year in the annual Global Competitiveness Index report released today by the World Economic Forum.
The index is drawn up based on criteria such as economic stability, infrastructure, market size, innovation, education and health.
Ireland scores poorly on infrastructure ranking 53 this year compared to 49 in 2007. Ranking in relation to macro-economic stability also dropped significantly to 47, 16 places lower than last year.
The US tops the overall ranking followed by Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and Singapore.
Britain dropped by three places out of the top 10 mainly due to a weakening of its financial markets. China continues to lead the way among large developing economies, improving by four places this year and joining the top 30.
Asian economies performed strongly with Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan in the top 20.
India, Russia and Brazil all feature in the top half of the rankings.
In sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa, Botswana and Mauritius also appear in the top half of the rankings, with several countries from the region measurably improving their competitiveness.