The global competitiveness index of Central East European countries and its changes in the period between 2006 and 2014

The fact according to which the small open market economics with developed public administration are capable of rapid growth has proved to be true in the third millennium, as well. It especially holds true for Singapore, Finland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland and Denmark which also have a prestigious position in the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) of the World Economic Forum (WEF).The countries of Central and Central East Europe more or less similar to them could be characterised by an improving economic position following their change of the regime and a painful transitory period. This process was closely linked to the integration process of the Central European countries to the EU. At that point the international analyses examining the development of the countries in transition judged Hungary’s competitiveness situation to be the best (ranking 27th place due to the radical economic reforms carried out previously according to the analysts). Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Poland were lagging behind Hungary at that time regarding competitiveness. Acceding to the European Union the transitory Central European countries reached a more developed and improving stage and the conditions for competitiveness significantly changed. The microeconomic index of the WEF shows that to date the question of microeconomic competitiveness in Slovenia, Hungary, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Slovakia, Poland and in the Balkan and Baltic countries has become a more and more important issue of economic policy. The policymakers of the developing countries are more and more concerned with the national competitiveness analyses, the indices of international competitiveness and the lists of rankings. The World Economic Forum is commissioned with publishing these indicators. Our paper tries to find an answer how the GCI of the East and Central East European countries changed after 2006, i.e. the accession to the European Union and 2008, i.e. after the global economic crisis and what countries make up a group of similar competitiveness.