India has moved down to the 50th place in the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness 2008-09 ranking, down from the 48th place last year. The United States tops the overall ranking, followed by Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and Singapore, in the annual report released on Friday

European economies continue to prevail in the top 10 with Finland, Germany and the Netherlands following suit. The United Kingdom, while remaining very competitive, has dropped by three places and out of the top 10, mainly attributable 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. All of the BRIC economies figure in the top half of the ranking, with China followed by India, Russia and Brazil.

Several Asian economies perform strongly with Japan, Hong Kong SAR, Republic of Korea and Taiwan, China in the top 20.

In Latin America, Chile is the highest ranked country, followed by Panama, Costa Rica and Mexico. 

A number of countries in the Middle East and North Africa region are in the upper half of the rankings, led by Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Tunisia, with particular improvements noted in the Gulf States since last year.

In sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa, Botswana and Mauritius feature in the top half of the rankings, with several countries from the region measurably improving their competitiveness. Click here to read the highlights of the report.

''Rising food and energy prices, a major international financial crisis and the related slowdown in the world's leading economies, are confronting policy-makers with new economic management challenges. Today's volatility underscores the importance of a competitiveness-supporting economic environment that can help national economies to weather these types of shocks in order to ensure solid economic performance going into the future,'' said Xavier Sala-i-Martin, Professor of Economics, Columbia University, USA, and co-author of the report.

The WEF study polled over 12,000 business leaders in 134 global economies in a survey designed to capture a broad range of factors affecting an economy's business climate. The report also includes comprehensive listings of the main strengths and weaknesses of countries, making it possible to identify key priorities for policy reform.

''In an uncertain global financial environment it is more important than ever for countries to put into place the fundamentals underpinning economic growth and development. The WE has for many years played a facilitating role in this process by providing detailed assessments of the productive potential of nations worldwide. The Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009 offers policy-makers and business leaders an important tool in the formulation of improved economic policies and institutional reforms,'' noted Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum.

The Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), is based on 12 pillars of competitiveness that include: institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic stability, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labour market efficiency, financial market sophistication, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication and innovation.

The report contains a detailed country/economy profile for each of the 134 economies featured in the study, providing a comprehensive summary of the overall position in the rankings as well as the most prominent competitive advantages and disadvantages of each country/economy based on the analysis used in computing the rankings. Also included is an extensive section of data tables with global rankings covering over 110 indicators.

This year's report also includes a number of discussions of selected countries including the United Kingdom, Costa Rica and Saudi Arabia, providing an in-depth analysis of the issues affecting national competitiveness.

See: The Global Competitiveness Index rankings and 2007–2008 comparisons