The Council believes that last year's progress is the result of efforts made by the government and other institutions working on reform areas, such as education, Marinac said, adding that the government should continue with reforms regardless of the forthcoming election period.
By moving up from the 64th place to the 51st place, Croatia has drawn closer to transition countries Slovakia, which is ranked 37th, Hungary, ranked 41st, and Poland, ranked 48th, and left behind the EU candidates Romania, ranked 68th, and Bulgaria, ranked 72nd.
The global competition index is designed by the World Economic Forum, and this year it covers 125 countries. This is the fifth year in a row that Croatia's economy has been assessed.
According to the business competitiveness index, which measures the competitive ability of companies, Croatia went up from the 65th place to the 56th place among 121 countries, or nine places up.
Of the nine competitiveness pillars, Croatia ranks the best according to the criteria higher education and training (44th), innovations (45th) and technological readiness (47th).
The country's ranking is below the average in areas such as macroeconomy (73), market efficiency (68), health and primary education (67) and institutions (66).
A detailed table of advantages and disadvantages shows that Croatia's best ranking is in categories such as the share of savings in GDP (21), the quality of mathematics and science education (31), the number of phone subscriptions per capita (30), the use of innovations (32) and the number of personal computers per capita (37).
The least favourable rankings refer to farming subsidies (110), budgetary deficit (103), and foreign investment and technology transfer (106).
The results of the survey conducted among business people indicate poor quality of institutions, the three main problems being inefficient public administration, corruption and high tax burdens.
The world's most competitive economy is Switzerland, followed by Finland and Sweden.
Among the top ten world economies also are Denmark, Singapore, the United States, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, and Great Britain. The biggest drop was registered by the United States, which fell from the first to the sixth place.