The Stress Test on Competitiveness, conducted by the Swiss business school IMD, places Bulgaria in the group of countries vulnerable to the global financial crisis.

Among the 57 countries studied, Bulgaria ranks 46th with 25,33 points from the maximum 100.

South Africa is 45th and France is 44th, right before Bulgaria, while the country is followed by Italy and Poland, Greece is 49th but only with 14 points, Spain is 50th with 7,5 points.

Russia is 51st, while Hungary, Croatia, the Ukraine, Argentina, and Venezuela are at the very bottom of the list.

Denmark finishes in first place in the "Stress Test" rankings. In addition, the top three include Singapore and Qatar.

Despite finishing first in the overall 2009 World Competitiveness Yearbook rankings, the United States comes in 28th position in the Stress Test, underlining the concern of the market with the depth of the crisis and the time that it will take to solve it.

The Stress Test is an additional ranking, based on the results of the World Competitiveness Yearbook 2009. It analyzes which countries are better equipped to fare through the financial crisis and improve their competitiveness in the near future and focuses on exposure, readiness and resilience in a period of world recession.

The Stress Test uses a selection of 20 criteria, divided into four categories: key forecasts for the economy in 2009 and opinions assessing the attitude; as well as the readiness and the resilience of government; business; and society in confronting the future.

The World Competitiveness ranking is based on 329 criteria, 2/3 of which are hard data and 1/3 opinion survey. It also takes into account the "established" history of competitiveness of nations accumulated over the years (for example in infrastructure, technology, etc.)

Bulgaria ranked 38th, again among 57 countries, in the World Competitiveness ranking, along with countries such as Spain, Brazil, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, Romania, Croatia and the Ukraine.