Dubai has the most competitive economy in the Middle East and ranks higher for its competitiveness than Japan, Germany, France or New Zealand, according to a new study released.

Dubai’s strengths include its achievements in health and environment, intellectual property rights, corporate governance, government business strategy, and attracting foreign direct investment.

A related problem in Dubai is the high volume of road traffic which typically causes serious slowdowns in circulation during the work week.

Dubai’s property market is dead. In general 2010 will be the worst year for real estate. 2010 for the real estate market will be a repetition of 2009; some correction and re-valuation losses will be carried in some of the real estate companies' books because of the downturn. One of the main reasons 2010 would be a bleak year for property is that buying would be restrained by the lack of liquidity.

Areas where it needs to show improvement include ethics and transparency, education and the quality of its work force, the study noted.