Croatia ranked 61st out of 63 leading economies of the world tracked by the Lausanne-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD) which publishes annual reports on the competitiveness of world's economies, dropping by two places compared to the 2017 report.

The first issue of the IMD competitiveness yearbook was introduced in July of 1989 and measures the quality of countries’ management of resources and competencies in creating new long-term value.

In this year’s report, the top three economies were United Stated, Hong Kong, and Singapore. These were followed by the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, the United Arab Emirates, Norway, Sweden, and Canada which rounded off the top ten.

The rankings are compiled based on an index score which tracks a total of 346 criteria, about two thirds of which refer to statistics indicators, with the remaining third based on opinions and assessments of investors and entrepreneurs.

Croatia ranked 61st in 2018, slipping two places from the 2017 report, Croatia’s National Competitiveness Council (NVK) said on Wednesday.

The bottom of the list remained unchanged from last year, with Mongolia and Venezuela ranking 62nd and 63rd, while Ukraine and Brazil moved up to 59th and 60th. Brazil’s progress has been its first upgrade since 2010, mainly due to increase in its real term GDP and the growth of employment in the country, while Ukraine made steps to improve its business efficiency.

Poland (34th), Slovenia (37th), Hungary (47th), Bulgaria (48th), and Romania (49th) all improved their rankings from last year, with Hungary making the biggest progress, moving up six places.

Poland’s progress was also attributed to its GDP growth, increased exports of commercial services, and better management of its public debt. Hungary increased its competitiveness by introducing measures to ease the tax burden for businesses and the overall growth in productivity. Slovenia’s growth is thanks to the the economic growth. On the other hand, the Czech Republic (29th) moved down by one place, and Slovakia (55th) dropped by four places compared to 2017.

“Decades of not doing anything and the constant postponing of making necessary changes have brought Croatia to the bottom in terms of attracting investments, or creating an encouraging business environment and conditions in which young people can see a future for themselves and their families in this country. In areas where we did make some effort to improve these things over the last few years, some improvements, comparatively speaking, are visible. The latest report indicates that the level of changes is still insufficient, which results in lagging behind other countries,” said Ivica Mudrinic, the chairman of NVK.

The research used to compile the report was collected in February and March this year and is in part based on statistics for 2017 and 2018.

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