Hungary Steps 4 Places Forward In World Competitiveness Ranking

The Czech Republic scored the highest in Central and Eastern Europe in the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), ranking 31st, two places higher than last year, stepping ahead of Estonia that slipped to the 35th place from the 33rd. In the WEF's view, however, Estonia “continues to be characterized by efficient institutions, well-functioning markets, and strong uptake of new technologies."

“Among the 12 countries that have joined the European Union since 2004, the Czech Republic takes the lead at 31st position. Although the country continues to face difficulties with respect to macroeconomic stability (43rd) and the quality of infrastructure (48th), consistent improvements across all dimensions of the institutional environment (up 10 places, from 72nd to 62nd), improved efficiency of markets (27th), and advances in technological readiness (30th) have contributed to this rise in the rankings," the WEF said.

Slovenia came forward five positions, ranking 37th on the list comprising 133 countries.

“Slovenia benefits from world-class health and educational systems, good infrastructure, and impressive innovative capacity. In addition, the country's macroeconomic stability has improved (up from 33rd to 26th rank this year), advancing its overall competitiveness outlook."

This year, the World Economic Forum polled over 13,000 business leaders in 133 economies, aiming to capture a broad range of factors affecting an economy's business climate.

After Slovenia there is a rather large interval regarding CEE economies, as the next in line is Poland on the 46th place (vs. 53rd last year), followed by Slovakia (-1) and Lithuania (-9).

“Poland benefits from its strong educational system and large market size, and has seen measurable improvements in the quality of its public institutions, with greater confidence in the efficiency and honesty of the country's public servants."

“Although the macroeconomic stability pillar has registered a significant drop in rankings this year (from 50th to 74th) because of the financial crisis, the years up to 2007 have seen a streamlining of fiscal and monetary policies. This, along with prudent regulation of financial markets and the large size of the domestic market, has helped Poland to weather the effects of the current global downturn and become one of the most economically stable countries in the region."

Hungary's GCI score of 4.22 was enough for the 7th position in CEE, sufficient to beat Romania that also stepped four placed ahead. Latvia was the loser in the region, falling as much as 14 places.

Switzerland tops the overall ranking in The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010, with the United States down one place to second position, with weakening in its financial markets and macroeconomic stability.

Singapore, Sweden and Denmark round out the top five.

European economies continue to prevail in the top 10 with Finland, Germany and the Netherlands following suit. The United Kingdom, while remaining very competitive, has continued its fall from last year, moving down one more place this year to 13th, mainly attributable to continuing weakening of its financial markets.



Global Competitiveness Index (GCI)
The Global Competitiveness Report's competitiveness ranking is based on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), developed for the World Economic Forum by Sala-i-Martin and introduced in 2004.

The GCI is based on 12 pillars of competitiveness, providing a comprehensive picture of the competitiveness landscape in countries around the world at all stages of development.

The pillars include Institutions, Infrastructure, Macroeconomic Stability, Health and Primary Education, Higher Education and Training, Goods Market Efficiency, Labour Market Efficiency, Financial Market Sophistication, Technological Readiness, Market Size, Business Sophistication, and Innovation."

Source: Portfolio Online FInancial Journal