Ireland falls to seventh place in competitiveness rankings

Ireland has fallen to seventh place in the latest World Competitiveness Rankings, as the country suffered a significant fall in efficiency of doing business.
According to the latest rankings from the International Institute for Management Development's (IMD) World Competitiveness Centre, which has been ranking the competitiveness of countries for 37 years, Ireland fell three places from fourth in 2024.
Ireland stood at second in the rankings in 2023.
The IMD rankings assess 69 economies around the world based on their competitive business environment. It is based on hundreds of indicators across four areas such as economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency, and infrastructure.
Switzerland took the top spot this year, followed by Singapore in second place, and Hong Kong in third. Denmark, the United Arab Emirates, and Taiwan were also ahead of Ireland.
Ireland was the highest ranking member of the eurozone on the list.
Sweden, Qatar, and the Netherlands rounded out the top 10 places on the list.
The US stood in 13th place in this year's rankings, while China fell to 16th. Germany rose five places to 19th, the UK was in 29th place, and Spain was in 39th place.
Nigeria, Namibia, and Venezuela were all at the bottom of this year's rankings.
In terms of the metrics, Ireland was on par in almost every category compared to 2024, however, there was a significant fall-off recorded in the business efficiency category. In 2023 and 2024, Ireland ranked third in the world in this area but in 2025 it has fallen to 11th.
The country still ranks highly in government efficiency, in fifth place. It placed ninth in economic performance, despite ranking 33rd for the domestic economy and 46th for prices.
While it ranked 17th in infrastructure, this was the same ranking the country had in 2024.
According to IMD, the final score for each economy is computed by using the perceptions of executives, together with statistical data.
The hard data represent a weight of two-thirds in the overall rankings. This year, the hard data was computed to form 170 criteria.
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