WASHINGTON: Germany has emerged top and Singapore second in a new World Bank logistics survey that measures how efficiently countries trade their goods around the world.

Sweden was adjudged the next most trade-friendly nation in the study released on Friday and hailed by the Washington-based institution as "the most comprehensive world survey of international freight forwarders and express carriers."

"Economic competitiveness is relentlessly driving countries to strengthen performance, and improving trade logistics is a smart way to deliver more efficiencies, lower costs and added economic growth," said bank chief Robert Zoellick.

High income economies dominated the top logistics rankings, with most of them occupying important places in global and regional supply chains, the 155-nation "Logistics Performance Indicators" study showed.

By contrast, the 10 worst performing countries were all from the low and lower income groups.

"Although the study shows a substantial logistics gap between rich countries and most developing countries, it finds positive trends in some areas essential to logistics performance and trade," the World Bank said.

"Some of them include the modernization of customs, use of information technology, and development of private logistics services," it said in a statement.

Among the most significant "over-performers" among developing countries were China, which emerged 27th in ranking, India (47), Uganda (66), Vietnam (53), Thailand (35), the Philippines (44), and South Africa (28).