The Competitiveness of the Economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina

The war that happened in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH) in the period 1992-1995 has decreased the production 80%, and subsequently caused high rates of unemployment. The country's fragile economy also faced many ups and downs; the output recovered in 1996-99 but slowed in 2000-02, raised again during 2003-08 (GDP growth exceeded 5% per year). Today, World Bank characterizes BH as an upper middle-income country. Bosnia and Herzegovina is a potential EU candidate country that tends to apply EU acquis requirements. According to the Copenhagen criteria, EU candidate countries must be able to prove their capacity to cope with the market forces and competitive pressure within the EU. Unfortunately, the existing surveys show that the competitiveness of BH economy is at much lower level than the rest of EU countries and some candidate countries as well.To be able to define the current state of competitiveness of Bosnia and Herzegovina, this study focuses on the statistical data provided by the GCR (Global Competitiveness Report) of WEF (World Economic Forum) for year 2012-2013