Slovenia scored a total of 73.93 points out of the 100 possible, compared to 88.21 by the first-ranked Germany, faring the best in value-added manufacturing (8th).

The second-best ranking for Slovenia is in higher education efficiency (14th), followed by the number of researchers (15th), intensity of research and development (19th), productivity (20th), patent activity (26th) and hi-tech (40th).

"Big winners among 2020's ranked economies were led by Slovenia, which gained 10 spots to No. 21 on the back of a 34-tier improvement in patent activity," Bloomberg noted.

The only other countries to gain five or more spots compared to 2019 along Slovenia are Greece (30th), Latvia (37th), Argentina (45th) and Chile (51st).

Bloomberg published the index for the eighth year running, taking into account seven criteria, including state expenditure for R&D, production capacities and the number of state-owned hi-tech companies.

The list of 60 most innovative countries was selected from among 200 countries considered.