Portugal climbs three spots in global competitiveness ranking
The country overtook Spain in the IMD's 2024 World Competitiveness Ranking.
Portugal rose three positions in the Swiss International Institute for Management Development’s 2024 World Competitiveness Ranking, going from 39th to 36th most competitive country globally.
It’s Portugal best performance since 2021, having surpassed Spain, which fell to the 40th position when in the last two years it was in 36th place.
Portugal rose across the four key indicators of the study: infrastructure (32nd to 26th), the one that records the best results; followed by economic performance (rises from 42nd to 39th), business efficiency (41st to 39th), and, finally, government efficiency (43rd to 41st), points out the study.
“The country obtained its best scores in matters of education (21st), technological infrastructures (24th), health and the environment (25th), scientific framework (25th), business legislation (25th ), and international trade (25th)”, says a statement.
Fiscal policy (58th), business management practices (46th), productivity and efficiency (45th), labour market (45th), domestic economy (44th), and finance (44th) are the indicators where the country scored the worst.
Among the main improvements compared to last year, with regard to economic performance and competitiveness in general, the study highlights “population growth, the budget surplus, the current balance of public accounts and developments in the field of transparency, among other factors". The declining indicators include, for example, “real growth in GDP per capita, real GDP growth, the so-called “brain drain”, the risk of political instability and long-term growth in employment”.
“Ensuring a sustainable level of GDP growth that allows a sustainable increase in average real income, promoting sectoral diversification of the economy, and resolving the potential problems of future excessive dependence on tourism” are among the warnings that the study points out for this year in Portugal.
Check out the IMD’s profile of the Portuguese economy (here).
About the ranking
The IMD’s world competitiveness ranking is based on surveys of 6,612 executives, between March and May 2024, and the analysis of 164 statistical data, which analyses indicators such as infrastructure and economic performance in 67 economies.
The Top 10 most competitive countries in the world are Singapore, Switzerland, Denmark, Ireland, Hong Kong, Sweden, UAE, Taiwan, Netherlands and Norway.
The adoption of AI, the risk of a global economic slowdown, and geopolitical conflicts are three trends that will have the biggest impact on companies this year.
The International Institute for Management Development (IMD) is a business school with headquarters in Switzerland.