site.btaBulgaria Places 49th in Global Competitiveness Ranking

Sofia, September 27 (BTA) - The Global Competitiveness Report 2017-2018, published by the World Economic Forum, shows that Bulgaria has moved up from 50th to 49th place among 137 economies included in the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI). Back in 2011, the country was ranked 74th, the Sofia-based Center for Economic Development (CED) said on Wednesday.

Bulgaria's GDP amounts to 52.4 billion dollars, which accounts for 0.12 per cent of the global GDP. The per capita GDP stands at 7,368 dollars with 7.1 million population. According to the report, the population declined by 100,000 in a year.

In the space of a year, Bulgaria's GCI score has increased from 4.4 to 4.5 points out of a maximum possible of 7 points. In the latest edition of the index, the country is ahead of a number of other EU member states, including Latvia (54th), Slovakia (59th), Hungary (60th), Romania (68th). Among the countries which joined the EU in 2004, Estonia traditionally performs best, and now it is ranked 29th, with the Czech Republic 31st.

The GCI combines 114 indicators grouped into 12 pillars that capture the overall economic and social development of the respective countries: institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, higher
education and training, goods market efficiency, labor market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication, and innovation.

The main pillars that drive Bulgaria forward are macroeconomic environment (25th place) and technological readiness (39th place).

The relevant factors for the macroeconomic environment pillar include the level of the government debt as a percentage of GDP (27.8 per cent), ), a low government deficit (1.6 per cent), low inflation, and relatively good credit ratings.

Technological readiness is the other factor accounting for Bulgaria's good position in the GCI. It includes many quantitative indicators with high values for the country: share of individual Internet users (60 per 100 people), share of broadband Internet subscribers (23 per 100 people), high Internet speed, and share of mobile phone subscribers (88 per 100 people).


Regarding the other pillars, however, Bulgaria has received relatively poor scores.
With regard to the labour market Bulgaria has slipped from 54th to 67th place, with GCI of 43. The country has received very low marks for labour-employer relations, capacity to attract and retain talent, reliance on professional management and labour productivity.

With regard to pay and productivity and flexibility of wage determination the country has scored positive marks.

With regard to innovation Bulgaria has slipped from 64th to 68th place and ranks 44th on company spending on R&D. University-industry collaboration in R&D is scored low at 77th place.

With regard to business maturity Bulgaria remains in 79th place.