Estonia fell from 23rd to 35th worldwide and from 10th to 17th among European countries by using the competitiveness assessment method of renown Swiss management institute IMD.
The Estonian Institute of Economic Research that unveiled the figures in its annual report said that Estonia did badly in all four competitiveness factors: it was down 25 places to 48th in economy, fell 14 places to 41st by business efficiency, 2 places by 28th in terms of infrastructure and 12 places to 22nd by efficient government.
"If there had been no crisis we should have invented it since things got out of hand in the boom years," said Leev Kuum, senior researchers of EKI. Kuum explained that during economic growth Estonia lost the advantages that it had when it was a low-cost country without creating new advantages.
"Economy is like Olympic games where much depends not only on the athlete and weather, but also on the coach and team," added Marje Josing, head of EKI, adding that it is the government and the state that is fulfilling the role of the coach and team.
Kuum added that while indicators were likely to worsen further in 2010, this is being offset by the growing business confidence.
The world's most competitive nations are US, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Australia, Canada and Holland.
Estonia's best-ever rank was in 2006 when Estonia was the world's 19th most competitive nation.
Toomas Hõbemägi
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