Bulgaria’s economy went two notches up to 39th place in the annual competitiveness ranking of the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), the Bulgarian partner of the Swiss business school, the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD), said in a statement on its website on May 14.

The main obstacles to Bulgaria’s competitiveness, as outlined in the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2008, are the heavy bureaucratic and regulatory obstacles to business, unfair competition (including institutional insufficiency, grey economy and corruption), infrastructure and human resources.

Bulgaria, which features in the IMD ranking for the third successive year, was 41st both in 2006 and 2007. This year, it ranked ahead of fellow European Union member states Greece, Poland, Romania and Italy.

The IMD assigns scores on four criteria. It evaluates the international competitiveness of the economy, government performance, business competitiveness and available infrastructure (basic infrastructure, technical and innovation infrastructure, health care and education).