Bulgaria's competitiveness slightly improved from last year but continues to lag behind most Central and Eastern European countries and EU member states, an annual ranking by the Switzerland-based World Economic Forum showed.

The country ranked 70th out of 139 economies in the Global Competitiveness Report 2010-2011, better than its 76th place in last year's report.

But most Central and Eastern European countries continue to outperform Bulgaria – Romania (63), the Czech Republic (36), while Estonia, which is scheduled to join the eurozone next year, comes in at 33.

The Global Competitiveness Report's competitiveness ranking is based on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), developed for the World Economic Forum by Sala-i-Martin and introduced in 2004.

The GCI is based on 12 pillars of competitiveness, providing a comprehensive picture of the competitiveness landscape in countries around the world at all stages of development.

The pillars are: institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labour market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication, and innovation.

The WEF says the rankings are calculated from both publicly available data and its survey, which questions more than 13,500 people in 139 countries.

Among European Union member states, Bulgaria manages to over-leap only Greece, which marks a sharp fall by 12 spots down to number 83, a downturn brought about by the deepening fiscal crisis and the recession.

The United States has been overtaken by Sweden and Singapore in the World Economic Forum's (WEF) competitiveness survey for 2010-11.

The change meant that the US slipped two places to fourth in the WEF's latest ranking.

Switzerland, which overtook the US last year, remains the top ranked economy.

Germany rose to fifth, and was the best placed eurozone country. The UK, after falling back in recent years, moved up one place to 12th position.

Bulgaria garnered the highest score in the technological readiness and macroeconomic environment section, where it rose up three places to 42 in comparison with last year.

Earlier this year the European Union's executive opened a budget discipline procedure against Bulgaria after official data showed its fiscal deficit exceeded the bloc's ceiling.

The European Commission said Bulgaria should reduce its deficit to beneath 3% of gross domestic product next year from 3.8% expected in 2010.