Slovakia focuses mostly on automotive industry. (source: TASR)
Slovakia’s competitiveness ranking fell significantly last year compared to other countries. It fell by 11 places to 51st position in the current World Competitiveness Ranking, issued by the IMD World Competitiveness Center.
The IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2017 included 63 countries in its ranking.
Slovakia is the second least competitive country of the central European region, ranking one place before Hungary. The list put Austria in 25th place, the Czech Republic in 28th, and Poland in 38th.
Drop in three main categories
In the category of Economic Performance, the country fell by eight positions to 52nd place.
“Though Slovakia has some of the higest growth in GDP and share of export on GDP, it remains highly dependent on one type of industry,” said the F. A. Hayek Foundation, a partner organisation of the International Institute for Management Development in Slovakia, as quoted by the SITA newswire
Slovakia’s economy is not diversified enough and has a relatively high youth unemployment, the F. A. Hayek Foundation added.
In the category of Goverment Efficiency, Slovakia fell by 13 positions to 55th place. Though the state of its public finances has improved since last year, its indebtedness is still high, and the measure of its tax policy has declined, particularly regarding the increase in taxes and tax bases.
Another issue listed for Slovakia is its increase in the regulation burden of the business sector and the perception of corruption, both of which impact the long-term operation of companies, the foundation said.
Slovakia’s position in Business Efficiency also worsened as the country fell by 16 places to 54th.
“This factor was influenced mostly by the problems with a shortage of staffers in some sectors, the rigidness of the labour market, and the instability of the business environment,” F. A. Hayek Foundation said, as quoted by SITA.
The competitiveness index has been published since 1989. It compares and evaluates 346 criteria within four main categories: economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure.
Two-thirds of data comes from objective data and statistics. The subjective data were obtained via a survey carried out among more than 6,200 top managers in all evaluated countries. Nearly 70 top managers of private Slovak companies participated in the survey, SITA reported.
