The World Economic Forum has published its annual Global Competitiveness Index. According to the document, Ukraine’s overall "infrastructure" ranking fell six places to 75th out of 138 countries. In this sector, the highest ranking was assigned for “quality of railroad infrastructure” (34th) and the worst for “quality of roads” (134th).
Among Ukraine’s neighbors, the highest ranked are the transport industries of Russia (35th) and Poland (53rd). Slovakia and Hungary are ranked 61st and 62nd, respectively. The “quality of infrastructure” rankings of Moldova and Romania are lower than that of Ukraine at 86th and 88th. Belarus in not included in the index.
Ukraine also dropped six places to 85th in the Global Competitiveness Index. This is due to poor performances on several criteria. For example, the country is ranked 130th in terms of “financial market development,” 129th in terms of “institutions,” 128th in terms of “macroeconomic development,” 108th in terms of “goods market efficiency,” 98th for “business sophistication,” and 75th for “infrastructure.”
According to respondents in the World Economic Forum’s Executive Opinion Survey, these low rankings were due to the following factors: corruption (mentioned by 14% of the respondents), policy instability (13.2%), inflation (11.9%), inefficient government bureaucracy (11.4%), access to financing (11.2%), government instability (8.2%), tax rates (7.3%) and tax regulation (6.8%).
At the same time, the World Economic Forum noted a number of Ukraine’s competitive advantages. These are “higher education and training” (33rd), “market size” (47th), innovation (52nd), and “health and primary education” (54th).
Ukraine's neighbors were ranked as follows: Poland 36th, Russia 43rd, Romania 62nd, Slovakia 65th, Hungary 69th, and Moldova 100th.
