Evaluation of the competitiveness and the business environment of Bulgaria.

Διπλωματική εργασία--Πανεπιστήμιο Μακεδονίας, Θεσσαλονίκη, 2013.This paper presents a comprehensive study on the performance of Bulgaria's economy in the global ranking of competitiveness and the business environment. In order to do so, data of two reports from recent years are taken into consideration; namely the Doing Business Report (World Bank) and the Global Competitiveness Report (World Economic Forum). A detailed analysis of the outliers resulting from the classification of the countries according to basic indicators of both reports is provided so as to evaluate the economy's stance. In order to estimate Bulgaria's competitiveness and to conduct a comparative analysis the country's performance is compared to others' of the region.In the comparison that follows with the Balkans, the Black Sea and the EU27, Bulgaria shows relatively good position in many sectors. Concerning though the comparison with the two major economic powers USA and China the results differ. Relating to USA Bulgaria is far below its performance while in relation to China can compete with it in many sectors. After the benchmarking among the economies under question, there is a focus on Bulgarian economy. The strengths and weaknesses concerning competitiveness and ease of doing business are introduced and after considering the drawbacks that emerge from the previous analysis, the paper continues with some policy recommendations for improvement