Finland remains the most competitive economy in the world and tops the rankings for the third consecutive year in The Global Competitiveness Report 2005-2006, released by the World Economic Forum.

Australia, India, Ireland and Poland all gained positions while the United States remained in the second position, followed by Sweden, Denmark, Taiwan and Singapore, respectively.
The rankings are drawn from a combination of hard data, publicly available for each of the economies studied, and the results of the Executive Opinion Survey, a comprehensive evaluation conducted by the World Economic Forum, together with its network of partner institutes (leading research institutes and business organisations) in the countries covered by the report. This year nearly 11,000 business leaders were polled in a record 117 economies worldwide.
Finland is number one in the Growth Competitiveness Index (GCI) rankings and holds this position for the fourth time in the last five years. The country is very well managed at the macroeconomic level, but it also scores very high in those measures that assess the quality of its public institutions.
The Nordic countries continue to hold prominent positions in the rankings among the top 10 most competitive economies this year, with Finland (1), Sweden (3), Denmark (4), Iceland (7) and Norway (9) all in privileged places. The stellar performance of these countries demonstrates the great diversity within Europe, with some countries doing very well by any measure, while others struggle behind. The Nordics are also challenging the conventional wisdom that high taxes and large safety nets undermine competitiveness, suggesting that what is important is how well government revenues are spent, rather than the overall tax burden per se.
Within the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, the small Gulf States perform quite well in the overall GCI rankings. The UAE and Qatar are ranked 18th and 19th, respectively.
Leading within Asia are Taiwan and Singapore, ranked 5th and 6th respectively, some places ahead of the next Asian country covered by the GCI, Japan, ranked 12th.  China and India are 49th and 50th, respectively.