The country is below Spain at 33rd and Lithuania at 36th, and above Italy at 43rd, Latvia at 44th, Malta at 48th, Slovenia at 59th, Cyprus at 65th, Slovakia at 67th, and Greece at 81st.
The ranking continues to be led by Switzerland, Singapore and the US. Germany is fourth, up one, while the Netherlands is fifth, up three. The rest of the top ten is composed of Japan, Hong Kong, Finland, Sweden and the UK.
At the bottom of the table are Guinea, Chad, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Malawi, Haiti, Mozambique, Venezuela and Myanmar.
According to the report, most developed economies have restored their competitiveness to the levels of before the crisis, enabling them to remain top of the rankings. “Nevertheless, there remain some disparities, with some countries in Eastern and Southern Europe occupying lower positions”, it noted, picking out Greece as the worst.
Access to finance is, the report states, “the main obstacle to growth” in developed economies, with the exception of the US, where it has recovered to close to pre-crisis levels.
In Europe, where financing problems are acute in the Euro Zone, the report notes the “emergence of a division” between reforming countries and others.
“In France, in Ireland, in Italy, in Portugal and in Spain, we observed significant improvements in the market in the areas of market competitiveness and labour market efficiency, due to the reforms that these countries have implemented,” it states. “By contrast, Cyprus and Greece have failed in improving these pillars.”