“Economic Analysis and Researches” Department with the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry made an overview of some of the more popular indices and rankings presented in 2013, showing Bulgaria’s position therein.
Updated reports by leading international organisations came out in 2013, assessing the economic development of the countries. The detailed overview of the main indices showed that among the best assessed conditions in our country are the macroeconomic stability, tax levels and freedom of trade. On the other hand, Bulgaria’s weak points are the regulations towards the business, the activities of the institutions and the level of corruption. We remain vulnerable in terms of innovations and business growth.
After reviewing some of the more popular indices and rankings, presented in 2013, we can state that Bulgaria has improved its positions in:
- Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014, where our country takes 57th place going 5 positions up compared to the report of 2012-2013 (62nd place). For yet another year, the criteria included in the index give the best rating to the macroeconomic stability and the worst to the activities of the institutions.
- Property Rights Index, which places our country 49th out of 130 countries, and a year earlier we were 62nd. Bulgaria’s better rating is due to the positive change in the sub-index of the “right of physical property”.
- The Best States for Business classification, where Bulgaria goes from 49th up to 42nd place in 2013. This more favorable place is due to the rating on the “functioning of the stock market” – 5th among 145 countries.
- Index of Economic Freedom, by which Bulgaria has made progress in one position up – 60th among 177 countries in the report of 2013 compared to 61st in 2012. No significant developments were scored by this index in the last 5 years.
The results remain alarming for Bulgaria in some of the reports posted in 2013 according to which Bulgaria has worsened its position in international aspect:
- In the World Competitiveness Scoreboard we take 57th place, while being 54th in the previous edition. Our country remains at the bottom of the ranking among the 60 participating countries. Only Croatia of the EU member-states has a worse position than ours.
- In the Economic Freedom of the World report we have also recorded a significant drop for Bulgaria: 49th place – compared to 45th in the report of 2012 and 28th in the one of 2011. In all sub-indices Bulgaria’s rating has been worsened but our worst performance comes in the index for “business regulations” according to which we take 100th place.
- In the Doing Business 2014 report our country is 58th among 189 countries in the “index for doing business”. We score a drop, though slight, compared to the previous revised report when Bulgaria has taken 57th place. Our lowest ranking is in the sub-indices “getting electricity” and “dealing with construction permits”, which need approximately 3 to 5 months.
- In the Corruption Perceptions Index we are 77th while being 75th a year earlier. For the second year in a worse position than us among the EU member-states is only Greece.
BCCI would like to remind that these indices and rankings are an important benchmark for the sectors in which Bulgaria should make changes for a better business environment and more investment.
Detailed information for each of the indices can be found in the “Economic Analysis and Researches” Department with the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry; telephone: (+359 2) 8117 411, e-mail: ikan@bcci.bg.