IDA Ireland today welcomed the news that Ireland ranks 7th (from 12th) of the 63 countries benchmarked in the 2019 IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook. Ireland also ranks 2nd in Europe.

The IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) is reputed as being the worldwide reference point on the competitiveness of nations, ranking and analysing how an economy manages the totality of its resources and competencies to increase the prosperity of its population. It has been published since 1989 and compares the competitiveness of 61 nations on the basis of over 300 criteria. It is based on hard data statistics and a business executives' opinion survey.

In terms of 2019 figures. Ireland ranks:
6th for Economic Performance in 2019 (11 in 2018)
11th for Government Efficiency in 2019 (13 in 2018)
3rd for Business Efficiency in 2019 (10 in 2018)
23rd for Infrastructure in 2019 (21 in 2018)

Commenting on the results, CEO of IDA Ireland, Martin Shanahan said, "Our business-friendly environment, education levels, ability to attract and retain talent, flexibility of our workforce, policy predictability and skilled workforce are all areas that investors refer to when they choose Ireland as an investment location. These rankings are constantly changing and Ireland has to be constantly improving its product if we are to continue to win investment. If we don’t, other countries will win that business and Ireland will fall down these rankings."

Source: www.businessworld.ie