Ireland’s Competitiveness Scorecard 2020 gathers together a wide range of economic indicators that inform the Council’s view on Ireland’s competitiveness position compared to other economies and identifies potential areas of concern. This year, given the circumstances, the Competitiveness Scorecard assesses Ireland’s competitiveness performance immediately prior to the onset of COVID-19. The report finds that, at the start of 2020, the Irish economy was continuing to perform well. It was within the top 20% of the countries in the major international competitiveness rankings. However, in some key areas, Ireland performed poorly – most particularly in relation to the environment, broadband coverage, digital skills, and the productivity of the SME sector. Dealing with these competitiveness weaknesses will be paramount to achieving a sustainable and balanced recovery in a period of heightened global uncertainty.

This benchmarking report builds the evidence base for the Council’s policy recommendations that will be included in Ireland’s Competitiveness Challenge 2020 that will be published later in the year.

The Competitiveness Scorecard 2020 is available here and the accompanying press release is can be found here.