Bulgaria, Romania Least Competitive EU Economies - WEF Study

Business | May 10, 2010, Monday // 08:34|  views

Romania and Bulgaria, the two most recent members of the EU, round out the bottom of the ranking, with weaknesses across most areas, most particularly innovation and R&D and liberalization. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Bulgaria remained the least competitive economy in the European Union, preceded by Romania and Italy, according to the World Economic Forum study.

Bulgaria collected 3.77 points and kept the first place at the bottom of the list, while Romania slipped one spot from last year and ranked 26th.

Sweden, Finland and Denmark topped the ranking above the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany in the analysis, which is based on indicators such as economic and productivity growth, research and development spending, and unemployment. Greece was fifth from last.

Romania and Bulgaria, the two most recent members of the EU, round out the bottom of the ranking, with weaknesses across most areas, most particularly innovation and R&D and liberalization, where they hold the bottom two places out of all countries, with low R&D spending, companies that are not aggressive in adopting new technologies, significant regulatory burdens and government policy-making that is considered among the least transparent in the world, says the analysis.

The ranking shows a wide disparity in performances across the 27 member countries, with scores ranging from 3.77 out of a maximum of 7 for Bulgaria, up to 5.83 for Sweden.

“While some progress has been made, much remains to be achieved in order to fully harness Europe’s economic potential,” Klaus Schwab, the WEF’s founder and chairman, said in a statement. “Accelerating the reform process” across the EU “will be critical for ensuring that the region gets back to growth,” he said.

Europe’s economies are struggling to recover from the worst worldwide recession since World War II. While reviving global growth has boosted exports, consumer spending within the region remains weak and Greece’s spreading debt crisis is clouding the outlook.

The Nordic countries “are the strongest European performers in the area of innovation, attributable to their companies’ aggressiveness in adopting new technologies and their level of spending on R&D,” according to the study. It also cited “the high degree of collaboration between universities and the private-sector in research” in these nations.

Several of the mostly eastern European nations that joined the EU in 2004 ranked ahead of many longer-standing EU members in the study, including Slovenia, Estonia and the Czech Republic. Those three countries came in above Portugal, Spain and Italy, according to the WEF analysis.

Among potential future EU members, Croatia and Montenegro outperformed the four lowest-ranked EU members - Poland, Italy, Romania and Bulgaria, the WEF said. Turkey and Macedonia outperform Bulgaria.

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Tags: competitive, competiveness, Eurozone, EU 27, IMF, greece

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