India ranks 48 on WEF Competitiveness index

New Delhi, Oct 31 (UNI) At a time when the India growth story is making headlines, the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness index finds India at 48 rank.

The Global Competitiveness Report 2007-2008, released today by the World Economic Forum in Switzerland saw India get a score of 4.33 to rank 48, the lowest in the past two years. For the year 2006-2007 India ranked 42.

However, WEF changed its way of calculating countries' competitiveness in 2007, making direct comparisons with prior rankings impossible.

Barring China (34) India fared well compared to its neighbours, with Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal ranking 92, 107 70 and 114 respectively.

United States tops the ranking as the most competitive economy in the world.

''The efficiency of the country's markets, the sophistication of its business community, the impressive capacity for technological innovation that exists within a first-rate system of universities and research centres, all contribute to making the United States a highly competitive economy,'' the report said.

However, some weaknesses, particularly related to macroeconomic imbalances, continue to present a risk to the country's overall competitiveness potential, and to the global economy as a whole.

This danger has most recently been demonstrated by the fallout and contagion caused by the country's sub-prime mortgage crisis and the ensuing global credit crunch, said Xavier Sala-i-Martin, Professor of Economics at Columbia University and Co-Editor of the Report.

For Asia the highest rank was for Singapore at seven with points of 5.45 followed by Japan at eighth rank with a score of 5.43.

The Africas performed poorly on the index with South Africa, ranked 44th overall, followed by Mauritius in 60th.

African countries like Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Burundi are at the very bottom of the ranking. Chad was rated lowest, in 131st and last place.

UNI