The World Economic Forum (WEF) on Wednesday released its latest Global Competitiveness Report for 2016-2017 with the Global Competitiveness Index that assesses the competitiveness of 138 economies around the world. The WEF underlines that in a time of "persistent slow growth", the report is a “critical reminder of the importance of competitiveness in solving both our international macroeconomic challenges and laying the ground for future prosperity."
Apart from Switzerland, the other nine countries among top ten competitive economies are Singapore, the United States, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Japan, Hong Kong SAR, and Finland.
In the latest annual report, Croatia moved up to 74th place with its overall score being 4.15. For the sake of comparison, Switzerland's overall score is 5.8.
Croatia made improvements in six out of 12 areas, that is the components of the index, taken into consideration by WEF experts: Macroeconomic environment, Higher education and training, Goods market efficiency, Labour market efficiency, Market size and Business sophistication.
Croatia's performance in the pillars "Institutions" and "Infrastructure" remains unchanged.
However, the country fared worse in the following pillars that constitute the Global Competitiveness Index: Health and primary education, Financial market development, Technological readiness and Innovation.
When it comes to Croatia, business people cite "Inefficient government bureaucracy" as a burning issue. The second most pressing problem is tax rates, and business people also complain about policy instability and tax regulations.
In Croatia's neighbourhood, Slovenia scored the best, moving up from 59th place to 56th place in the latest report. Macedonia fell from 60th to 68th place. Hungary slid down from 69th to 63rd place, and Montenegro from 70th to 82nd ranking.
Albania is among the countries that have managed to make significant rises up the ranking since last year’s report. Albania recorded a double digit gain rising from 93rd to 80th place.
Serbia moved up from 94th to 90th place, and Bosnia and Herzegovina rose from 111th to 107th place.