Report: Slovenian Economy 32nd Most Competitive in the World

Geneva, 28 September

The Slovenian economy is ranked the 32nd most competitive in the world in 2005, gaining one place over 2004, the World Economic Forum said in its global competitiveness report, released on Wednesday in Geneva.

Among EU members, Slovenia took 15th place and is the second most competitive economy among the new EU members, after Estonia, the report says.
According to the document, the main obstacles to greater competitiveness of the Slovenian economy are tax legislation, the ineffective public administration, unappealing tax rates and a rigid labour market.
In terms of the macroeconomic conditions, Slovenia ranks 35th in the world, four places higher than last year. While gaining a good credit rating (27th), Slovenia fared poorly in state spending (62nd) in this category.
The country dropped four places to 35th in terms of conditions at public institutions that are crucial to economic growth. In this category, it was a solid 25th in terms of corruption, but fared slightly worse as regards its legal system (48th).
Moreover, the country was ranked 32nd in terms of promoting new technologies, a drop of six places on 2004. The drop was ascribed to its poor performance in the transfer of technology (54th), while its grades for the promotion of innovation (23rd) and IT (27th) were better.
According to the survey, the most competitive world economy is Finland, followed by the US, Sweden, Denmark and Taiwan.
Among EU countries, Greece experienced the biggest drop on the rankings, falling 10 places to 46th, one place before Italy, which remained 47th.
The worst ranked European country is Albania, placed 100th on the list of 117 world economies.
The countries of former Yugoslavia fared worse than Slovenia, with Croatia placing 62nd and Serbia-Montenegro 80th.
The Global Competitiveness Report has been issued by the World Economic Forum since 1979 and is based on a survey among leading managers in individual countries.
This year's survey included more than 11,000 managers and entrepreneurs, assessing macroeconomic environment, quality of key public institutions and the level of new technologies and innovations.

Report: Slovenian Economy 32nd Most Competitive in the World

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