The World Economic Forum on Tuesday released its Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010 showing that Croatia moved down to 72nd place. In the WEF report for 2008/2009, Croatia was ranked 61st.
Croatian competitiveness worsened from 4.22 to 4.03, which is a decline of 4.5 per cent. Out of 12 factors affecting competitiveness, the largest decrease was noted in the labour market (24 points) and the efficiency in trade of goods (18 points).
Business sophistication as well as sophistication and quality of financial institutions also got relatively low ratings, while good grades were given to technological readiness, healthcare and primary education, as well as infrastructure and macroeconomic stability.
Switzerland tops the overall ranking in The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010. The United States falls 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.
"The strong interdependence among the world’s economies makes this a truly global economic crisis in every sense. Policy-makers are presently struggling with ways of managing these new economic challenges, while preparing their economies to perform well in a future economic landscape characterized by growing uncertainty. In a difficult global economic environment, it is more important than ever for countries to put into place strong fundamentals underpinning economic growth and development," said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.
The Global Competitiveness Report’s competitiveness ranking is based on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI).
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.