Azernews.Az

Azerbaijan has significantly improved its competitive position in the ranking of world economies, an Economic Development Ministry official told Trend news agency on Friday.

Azerbaijan was upgraded nine points to 46th out of 144 countries in the ranking of competitive economies for 2012-2013, compiled annually by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Adalat Muradov, head of the ministry's department of economic policy analysis and forecasting, said Azerbaijan's nine-point improvement compared to last year's report is another indicator of the successful economic policy being pursued by President Ilham Aliyev.

The largest increase -- by 19 points -- was recorded in Azerbaijan on the efficiency of the commodity market.

"In terms of innovation capacity, Azerbaijan's rating rose by 14 points, the technological level - 13 points and quality of institutions - five points. In terms of macroeconomic stability, Azerbaijan is in the top 20 at 18th," Muradov said.

Azerbaijan is the leader in CIS on the index of competitiveness for the fourth year running, followed by Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine.

"Besides Azerbaijan, only Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Russia and Tajikistan improved their positions among CIS countries since 2005. Thus, Azerbaijan rose by 23 points, while Ukraine -- by 11 points, Kazakhstan 10, Russia 8 and Tajikistan 4. In other words, Azerbaijan also leads in terms of improving rankings," Muradov said.

In calculating the index of competitiveness of each country, the WEF uses 12 key indicators - the quality of institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic stability, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labor market efficiency, financial market development, technological level, the volume of the domestic market, competitiveness and innovation.