Hungary back to 2014 level in global competitiveness
Hungary has improved its position on the World Economic Forumʼs latest Global Competitiveness Index by nine spots to 60th place in the ranking of 137 economies around the world.
The rise is to a large extent due to an improvement in technological readiness, an increase in technology take-up by firms from a low level - from 135th to 109th on firm-level technology absorption - and significant increases in internet take-up by individuals, from 73% of the population in 2015 to 79% in 2016, the WEF said in the indexʼs 2017-2018 edition.
"In addition, business executives are reporting improvements in the development of financial markets as well as the business and innovation environment," the index added, quoted by Hungarian news agency MTI.
Hungaryʼs overall index score was 4.3 on a scale of 1-7, with 7 being the best score. The country scored 3.5 for the institutions component of the index, 4.4 for infrastructure, 5.1 for its macroeconomic environment, and 5.6 for health and primary education.
Among the most problematic factors for doing business, an inadequately educated workforce took top place, followed by corruption, tax rates and tax regulations. The WEF noted that with this yearʼs improvements, Hungary is returning to levels it held previously, as it was ranked 63rd in 2015, and 60th in 2014.
Commenting on the fresh ranking, Minister for National Economy Mihály Varga said a number of recent favorable developments had not been considered in the WEF report, making a further improvement in Hungaryʼs position likely in future.
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