Among neighboring countries, Romania outranks Bulgaria this year, which is at 54 in the 2015-2016 Global Competitiveness report released Wednesday.
Hungary is ten spots behind Romania, at 63, while Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Serbia are not among the top 70 most competitive economies.
The Czech Republic ranks 31st, Lithuania is on the 36th position and Poland ranks 41st.
The Romanian economy is the 44th most efficient in the world, up by seven spots, but does poorly in terms of innovation, at 84 (compared to 78 in 2014).
Efficiency criteria include access to education and training, goods market efficiency, labor market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness and market size.
Innovation includes capacity for innovation as well as business sophistication.
By basic requirements, such as institutional development, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment and access to health and primary education, Romania ranks 70th, up 7 spots.
The world’s most competitive economy is Switzerland, followed by Singapore, the United States, Germany, Netherlands, Japan, Hong Kong, Finland, Sweden and UK.
The WEF global competitiveness report analyzes 140 economies.