ISLAMABAD, Oct 24: Pakistan’s ranking in competitiveness dropped by nine places to 101 over the year owing to a number of weaknesses that are hindering its ability to fully benefit from the potential economies of scale, mainly related to the human resources base.

The report released here by competitiveness support fund (CSF), a joint venture of USAID and finance ministry showed that Pakistan benefits from its large market size (ranked 29th overall).

Specifically, Pakistan's rankings are low in the pillars measuring health and primary education (116th), higher education and training (123rd), labour market efficiency (121st) and technological readiness (100th). And the agriculture policy cost has deteriorated since last year to 90th ranking from 30th last year.

In addition, there has been a measurable weakening over the past year in the perceived quality of public institutions.