Ireland ranks well in competitiveness in economic performance assessment
Improvements in economic performance and infrastructure has seen Ireland's status as a competitive economy rise in economic ranking.
Longford Westmeath TD and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Peter Burke, has welcomed the publication of re-estimating Ireland’s international competitiveness performance in the latest bulletin by the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council (NCPC).
Minister Burke said of the data: “This analysis marks a very welcome contribution by the Council and confirms that the Irish economy is internationally competitive.
“However, we cannot become complacent, and there remains work to do in many areas. The Council’s findings will make a valuable contribution in the preparation of the Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity.”
The bulletin explores how Ireland’s performance in the IMD World Competitiveness Ranking 2024 is affected when selected indicators are rescaled using Modified Gross National Income (GNI) in place of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“Despite our strong international performance, we are also aware that there are challenges, and it is important that we do not take our current strengths for granted,” the Minister said, “This is reflected in the decision taken by Cabinet to expedite delivery of the Action Plan, which will play a key role in addressing these challenges and safeguarding our competitiveness performance into the future.”
The findings show that Ireland’s competitiveness performance remains strong with this adjustment. In fact, it rises by one position in the ranking, with improvements in three of the four pillars. The analysis explores how Ireland’s competitiveness profile changes when key metrics are recalibrated to better reflect the scale of the domestic economy.
The IMD World Competitiveness Ranking is a widely used international benchmark, assessing over 60 economies across four key pillars and 20 sub-pillars, and based on 250 individual measures. In the 2024 IMD results, Ireland was ranked 4th overall.
The analysis included in this Bulletin involves replicating the IMD methodology from the ground up, in order to facilitate the substitution of GNI for GDP for Ireland.
Key findings from the Bulletin include that Ireland’s competitiveness ranking improves by one place when GDP-based indicators are adjusted using GNI, with notable gains in Economic Performance (up seven places) and Infrastructure (up two places). Business Efficiency is unchanged, while Government Efficiency declines slightly, reflecting a more constrained fiscal profile when public finance metrics are expressed over a smaller income base.
The analysis underscores the importance of context-sensitive benchmarking, especially when using international indices to inform national policy. This Bulletin highlights the need to interpret international indices critically, understanding their underlying assumptions, and where necessary, supplementing them with alternative analyses that better capture national circumstances.
The National Competitiveness and Productivity Council (NCPC) was established in 1997 (then the National Competitiveness Council) to report to the Taoiseach, through the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, on key competitiveness issues facing the Irish economy. In 2019, the NCPC was designated as Ireland’s National Productivity Board.
As part of its work, the NCPC makes recommendations on policy actions required to enhance Ireland’s competitive position.
The NCPC publishes three main research outputs; The Competitiveness Scorecard benchmarks Ireland against international competitors on areas of competitiveness and productivity.
This is published every three years (and was last published in 2024); The Competitiveness Challenge is an annual publication in which the NCPC makes recommendations for Government on key challenges to Ireland’s international competitiveness; while the NCPC Bulletins are short and focused research notes, examining specific topics within the sphere of competitiveness and productivity. The NCPC releases multiple Bulletins each year. These short pieces often feed into the NCPC’s main Challenges report.