The country was placed 44th among 142 countries included in last year’s index.
The countries newly covered in the WEF’s 2012-2013 competitiveness report include Gabon, Guinea, Liberia, Seychelles, and Sierra Leone. However, the rankings exclude certain previously covered countries, such as Syria.
Lithuania ranks between Barbados (44th) and Azerbaijan (46th) this year.
Estonia slid to 34th place, from 33rd position in last year’s index, while Latvia rose to 55th place, from 64th position last year. Poland was ranked 41st, same as last year, and Russia moved down to 67th position, from 66th in last year’s index.
Lithuania continued to score well in terms of its higher education (26th worldwide) and IT literacy (33rd). The country’s major weaknesses, as identified by WEF experts, continue to include small size of the market (74th place), poorly developed financial market (87th place), and poor macroeconomic environment (75th).
The experts praised the country for low trade tariffs (6th place) and flexibility of setting wages (8th place), but criticized it for complicated hiring and firing procedures (118th place), significant brain drain (117th place), high burden of government regulation (111th place). Moreover, the country was ranked 90th worldwide in terms of wastefulness of government spending.
As assessed by the WEF, Lithuania lagged behind the group of 35most innovative countries and the country was placed in the group of 21 countries in transition from development stage 2 to stage 3 alongside Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Hungary. Moreover, the country was ranked 47th worldwide in terms of innovation level.
The WEF used three sub-indexes to assess the countries, including the basic requirements sub-index, the efficiency enhancers sub-index, and the innovation and sophistication factors sub-index. Lithuania was placed 49th, 46th and 47th, respectively, in these rankings.
The WEF has published the competitiveness index for the sixth consecutive year. In 2010 Lithuania ranked 47th, in 2009, 53rd, in 2008, 44th, in 2007, 38th.
