Cyprus ranks 55th in Global Competitiveness Report 2007-2008

Cyprus ranks 55th among 131 countries according to the overall ranking in The Global Competitiveness Report 2007-2008, released by the World Economic Forum.
The United States tops the overall ranking. Switzerland is in second position followed by Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Finland and Singapore, respectively. Chile is the highest ranked country in Latin America, followed by Mexico and Costa Rica.
China and India continue to lead the way among large developing economies.
Several countries in the Middle East and North Africa region are in the upper half of the rankings, led by Israel, Kuwait, Qatar, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
In sub-Saharan Africa, only South Africa and Mauritius feature in the top half of the rankings, with several countries from the region positioned at the very bottom.Cyprus dropped by three positions compared to last year’s ranking among 125 countries which were included in last year’s report by six positions, if the countries which appear for the first time on the list are considered.
Cyprus’ score is lower than that of 20 EU countries. The main field in which Cyprus comes short of is the size of its domestic market. It also has low scores in the fields of labour market effectiveness, macroeconomic stability and innovation.
On the contrary the quality of infrastructures, the functioning of institutions, education and health have secured high scores.
As regards enterprises competitiveness, Cyprus ranks 45th among 127 countries. Its business environment secures the 39th position, while internal organization and functioning ob Cyprus enterprises ranks at the 66th position in the world.
The rankings are calculated from both publicly available data and the Executive Opinion Survey, a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum together with its network of Partner Institutes (leading research institutes and business organizations) in the countries covered by the Report. The Partner Institutes of the Forum in Cyprus are the Cyprus Development Bank and the Cyprus College (European University of Cyprus) Research Centre.
This year, over 11,000 business leaders were polled in a record 131 countries. The survey is 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.