The Center for the Study of Democracy is the official partner for Bulgaria of the IMD World Competitiveness Center. According to the Global Competitiveness Yearbook 2023 of the Institute for Management Development (IMD, Switzerland), in the last sixteen years the Bulgarian economy has been slowly recovering. However, in 2023 Bulgaria’s rank degraded with four places to 57th out of 64 countries, demonstrating another downfall since the five places decrease recorded between 2020-2021. Furthermore, the country marks a deterioration of nine positions compared to 2020, and 19 positions compared to 2009.

Major challenges and opportunities for improving Bulgaria’s competitiveness in 2023

• Protracted political instability, weak rule of law, and strategic ambiguity regarding Ukraine.
• Delayed Eurozone and Schengen entry, risk of loss of EU funds.
• Fiscal uncertainty, shrinking workforce, and substantial informal economy.
• Deepening socio-economic inequalities and high risk of poverty.
• Slow green transition and unclear timeline of coal exit.