Bulgaria has retained the 54th position it has had since last year in the World Economic Forum's competitiveness ranking, a WEF report reads.

WEF data shows Bulgaria's economy is currently outperforming six other EU member states which include Slovenia, Hungary, Cyprus, Croatia, and Greece.

Neighboring Romania, another EU member, comes a spot up (53rd).

Breaking down the results, the organization's criteria where Bulgaria has a relatively good record are in the "Efficiency enhancers" subindex, which includes higher education (64th), the labor market (68th), goods market efficiency (61st), financial markets (59) and technological readiness. The latter is where the country has ranked best (38th) compared to other parts of the subindex, with five EU member states behind.

Bulgaria, however, has sunk 9 places - compared to last year - in terms of institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic stability, healthcare and primary education, ranking 68th.

Independence of the judiciary, trust in politicians, corruption and protection of lobbies' interests, and bureaucratic burden have place the country even lower - No. 94.

Bulgaria is currently going through an "Efficiency Driven" stage of development, out of three (the other two are "Factor Driven" and Innovation Driven") stages, the document [PDF] reads. In terms of "Country capacity to attract talent" it has ranked 132nd, while the "Country capacity to retain talent" indicator places it 133rd - meaning just seven countries in the world positioned below.

It should be noted that the last indicator includes several other Eastern European countries in the "ten worst" category. These are Romania (131st), Croatia (134th), Bosnia (136th), Moldova (137th), and Serbia (140th).

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