GENEVA, September 03./ITAR-TASS/. Russia has reached the 53rd place against the 64th place out of 144 countries in the global competitiveness rating of the World Economic Forum (WEF), but repercussions of the situation in Ukraine may worsen the country’s rank, according to a forum’s 2014-2015 report released Wednesday.

The jump is attributed to some improvements linked with efficiency of the local market of goods and services, exploitation of information and communications technologies and separate competitiveness of local companies, according to the report.

Russia’s economy has been experiencing a great number of deep-rooted problems that must be solved to raise the country’s competitiveness. Among the most serious problems, the forum’s senior economist Benat Bilbao-Osorio highlighted the existence of monopolies and oligopolies, which prevents other companies from entering the market, and insufficient investments into innovative development.

The Ukrainian conflict may have considerable negative influence on the level of competitiveness of both economies of Russia and Ukraine due to their size and importance, Bilbao-Osorio said, commenting on the report.

Ukraine was ranked 76th, up from 68th. Switzerland, Singapore and the US were ranked 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, respectively.