Canada may benefit from a rosy perception abroad as a good place to do business, economists say. (Adrian Wyle/Canadian Press)

Economists are warning that a new study that ranks Canada among the most technologically prepared countries in the world should be taken with a large grain of salt.

The annual report, released Thursday by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum, placed Canada seventh out of 133 countries after ranking each in 68 categories, ranging from education levels and government technology usage to venture capital availability and mobile phone prices.

Canada also ranked higher this year than countries normally thought of as technology leaders, such as South Korea (15th) and Japan (21st).

Economists said the report may reflect Canada's current strong reputation abroad, earned after emerging from the recession in relatively good shape. That is causing international think-tanks such as the World Economic Forum to overstate Canada's standings in a number of ways.

"Canada is the darling of the G7 right now so everything is coloured in a rosy [hue]," said CIBC chief economist Benjamin Tal. "That would definitely have an impact."

The United States ranked above Canada at fifth, while Sweden topped the "Networked Readiness Index." Canada's position improved from 10th on last year's survey, and 13th the year before.

Canada fared particularly well in this year's survey in areas such as electricity production, fixed telephone prices, personal computer usage and foreign technology licensing, ranking in the Top 5 in each. Areas of weakness included mobile phone subscriptions, taxation rates and contract enforcement times, each ranking in the lower half of the study.

The report runs counter to what many domestic experts have been saying recently.

Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney said Wednesday the country's productivity level was "abysmal," while University of Waterloo president David Johnston recently told CBC News that Canada has had a "failure of imagination" on digital issues.

Google executives have criticized Canadian businesses for being slow to adapt to the web, while the federal government and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission have acknowledged weak competition in several service markets.

'They're highly unscientific'

Economists don't put much stock in the report, as well as the World Economic Forum's related Global Competitiveness Survey, because they rely largely on interviews with executives in polled countries.

"They're highly unscientific. They just ask people what they think, and there's almost no empirical measurement in it," said TD Bank chief economist Don Drummond. "The results are often quite highly counter-intuitive."

Canada placed first overall, for example, in the survey's "level of competition index," which measures how much competition exists in internet, mobile phone and long-distance calling markets.

Countries scored between zero and two points in each category, getting no points for having a monopoly, one point for partial competition and two points for "full competition," which was not defined. Canada scored the full six points, but tied for first place with the other 58 countries that also got top marks.

Drummond said the report's conclusions are not entirely a bad thing, because they may boost Canada's international standing over all.

"It does form a part of how people perceive Canada, so it may lead to people wanting to do business here," he said.