Romania up four places in competitiveness ranking

Romania climbed four positions in the world's competitiveness ranking, the so-called World Competitiveness Scoreboard, to no. 50, according to the ranking published yesterday by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), one of the world's most prestigious business schools, based in Switzerland.

Ever since 1989, IMD has been publishing a global ranking of economic competitiveness yearly, which analyses the performance of several countries based on a set of criteria.

Each country is rated from 0 to 100 based on the following indicators: economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure. Based on these criteria, Romania managed to climb four places this year, to no. 50 out of the 59 economies analyzed, ahead of Slovenia, Bulgaria, Greece, Ukraine and Croatia. Romania scored 57.4 out of 100.

The progress comes after Romania stagnated at no. 54 last year, after scoring 47.4 points out of 100 in terms of competitiveness.

Compared with 2010, when the Romanian economy recorded its second year of recession, this year's most upbeat forecasts suggest an around 2% GDP growth.

Romania's exit from recession was brought in the first quarter by the around 40% rise in exports against the similar period of last year, as well as by the increase in the value of fuel exports.