World Rankings Give Bulgaria Stable Position in Economic Freedom, Prosperity, Competitiveness

An annual review of world rankings by the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) concluded that in 2018 Bulgaria held stable ground in terms of economic freedom, prosperity and competitiveness.

The BCCI said Bulgaria kept its 47th place out of 186 countries in the Index of Economic Freedom of The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, and moved up two spots to 46th out of 162 countries in the Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom of the World Index.

Bulgaria climbed five notches from 2016 in two UN indexes, to 47th place in the E-Government Development Index, and to 51st place in the Human Development Index. This country was ranked 47th among 149 countries on the Legatum Prosperity Index, moving up four spots from 2017.

Bulgaria ranked 63rd in the International Property Rights Index of the Property Rights Alliance, compared to 66th place in 2016 and 85th in 2017. The World Bank's Logistics Performance Index showed a 20-notch improvement in Bulgaria's ranking to 52nd place from 2016.

The Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy showed an improvement in Bulgaria's environmental performance, ranking it 30th out of 180 countries.

This country was ranked 43rd in the IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking in 2018, making small progress by two places from 2017. Knowledge, technology and future readiness are the main criteria assessed in this ranking, therefore businesses and the State should focus their efforts on these areas. The pace of digitalization and implementing Industry 4.0 remains slow, the BCCI said.

Bulgaria dropped nine spots to 59th in the World Bank's Doing Business 2019, whereas China, which ranked 78th in 2018, jumped to 46th place in 2019. Bulgaria also dropped 12 spots to 46th in Forbes' annual look at the Best Countries for Business.

Source: BTA