According to this year’s World Economic Forum competitiveness report, Slovenia has a more competitive economy than its G7 neighbor, Italy. You can read the UPI story here. I don’t take much stock in it, unfortunately. As the BBC notes "The rankings are mainly based on a survey of executive opinion carried out by the World Economics Forum every year." In other words, Italy has a lot of angry and frustrated executives. More than Slovenia. So if you’re in the Executive Stress Relief business, now is the time to enter the Italian market.

Anyhow. According to the report, Finland and the United States have the two most competitive economies on Earth. Sweden and Denmark follow. The BBC’s round-up of the top ten is here.

I poked around the World Economic Forum site trying to find out more, but walked away with empty hands and the vague urge to smash something — like a bank window or something. This tantalizing page, for example, boasts competitive reports for each of the incoming EU states, including Slovenia, but all of the links are dead.

And that’s why I decided to give the WEF a failing grade in my annual Internet Competiveness Report for 2004. Better luck next year, fellas.