Ireland is the second most competitive economy out of 64 analysed in this year’s IMD World Competitive Rankings (WCR).
The country has risen from eleventh place last year to its new position, behind only Denmark.
The overall results is made up of rankings in four areas, with Ireland coming first on economic performance, third on Government efficiency and also on business efficiency.
However, the economy ranked less well when it came to infrastructure, landing in nineteenth place.
“It is very pleasing to see our economy perform so strongly despite ongoing geopolitical tension, inflation and other challenging issues,” said the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Simon Coveney.
“The rankings recognise that dealing with today’s unpredictable business environment requires agility and adaptability in order to build a resilient economy and that has certainly been the case with our economy.”
Minister Coveney said he expects there will be significant improvements in the country’s ranking on infrastructure as investment is made through the €165 billion National Development Plan.
The overall ranking should improve Ireland’s attractiveness when it comes to bringing in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
“The WCR is an important indicator of how Ireland compares to other countries in terms of our competitiveness and how we compete for foreign direct investment,” said Chief Executive of IDA Ireland, Michael Lohan.
“The fact that we have risen to second in the rankings demonstrates that Ireland punches well above its weight in attracting multinational companies to invest here and this is very welcome news.”
However, Mr Lohan said the attributes that make Ireland attractive cannot be taken for granted and as a result Ireland needs to continue to build our capability in the areas of digitalisation, sustainability and innovation.
“While there has been a slight improvement in Ireland’s Infrastructure ranking, this is one area where we need further advancements,” he said.
“We will continue to work closely with Government and utility providers to ensure we have the necessary national infrastructure provision, which is critical to support our entire enterprise base both now and into the future.”
The World Competitiveness Ranking is based on over 300 competitiveness criteria selected as a result of research using economic literature, international, national and regional sources, and feedback from the business community, government agencies and academics.
The criteria are revised and updated regularly as new theories, research and data become available, and as the global economy evolves.