Iceland’s status as one of the world’s most competitive economies is confirmed in the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2007. This year Iceland ranks #7 globally and is Europe’s 3rd most competitive economy, outperforming the continents – and some of the worlds – biggest industrial nations.

The overall results of IMD's competitiveness ranking place Iceland #7, trailing the USA, Hong Kong, Singapore, Luxembourg, Denmark and Switzerland.

Business efficiency continues to be one of Iceland strong points and ranks #2 globally, following only Hong Kong.

The 2007 edition features 50 national and regional economies, analyzed according to 323 criteria, grouped into four competitiveness factors. The Hard data is taken from international and regional organizations and private institutes. Survey data is drawn from the Executive Opinion Survey (4,055 respondents).

The World Competitiveness Scoreboard 2007 Top twenty five competitive economies
2006 rankings are in brackets (*):

1. USA (1)
2. Singapore (3)
3. Hong Kong (2)
4. Luxembourg (9)
5. Denmark (5)
6. Switzerland (8)
7. Iceland (4)
8. Netherlands (15)
9. Sweden (14)
10. Canada (7)
11. Austria (13)
12. Australia (6)
13. Norway (12)
14. Ireland (11)
15. China Mainland (18)
16. Germany (25)
17. Finland (10)
18. Taiwan (17)
19. New Zealand (21)
20. United Kingdom (20)
21. Israel (24)
22. Estonia (19)
23. Malaysia (22)
24. Japan (16)
25. Belgium (26)

 (*) A small discrepancy can be found in last years numbers compared with previous Scoreboards. In previous years the state of Bavaria (Bayern) was calculated as a single economy and not a part of Germany.