Romania has lost ten places last year in the global competitiveness rankings drawn up by the World Economic Forum, ranking 66th in close proximity to Vietnam (65) and Indonesia (67). The US ranked first, after having been placed second in last year’s ranking, while Finland, last year’s number one dropped to the second place. As for the Central and Eastern European countries, Slovenia is the highest-ranking of them all (28th), followed by Hungary (29), Lithuania (36), the Czech Republic (40), Latvia (44), Slovakia (49), Poland (51), Croatia (58) and Bulgaria (62). The Russian Federation ranks 64th. The competitiveness index, the criterion used to draw up the rankings is comprised of several items, so that the position of each country varies significantly, according to each of the items. The component according to which Romania ranks highest (55) on the lists of the World Economic Forum is technology, followed by the overall macroeconomy, a criterion that placed Romania 58th, and the public institution activity index, which placed it 67th. ZF