- Bulletin 26-2: IMD World Competitiveness Rankings 2026
- ESRI publishes new research on SME Financing
- ESRI publishes new research on AI adoption among Irish SMEs
- Bulletin 26-1: Public Investment in Transport Infrastructure: A Competitiveness and Productivity Perspective
- Appointment of new Chair of the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council
- Bulletin 25-5: Benchmarking the Performance of Ireland’s Public Administration, 2024
- NCPC Welcomes Publication of Accelerating Infrastructure Report and Action Plan
- Budget 2026 and Competitiveness: Navigating Uncertainty
- NCPC Welcomes Government's Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity
- Call for Expressions of Interest - Member of the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council
- Bulletin 25-4: IMD World Competitiveness Rankings
- Ireland's Competitiveness Challenge 2025
- The Chair presents to the second annual Competitiveness Summit of Ministers hosted by the Taoiseach
- Bulletin 25-3: The Competitiveness Implications of Post-Pandemic Learning Losses
- Bulletin 25-2: Re-estimating Ireland’s International Competitiveness Performance
- Retrospective Review, 2020-2023
- NCPC's South-East Regional Seminar
- Bulletin 25-1: Developments in Ireland's National Productivity Statistics
- The Government Response to Ireland’s Competitiveness Challenge 2024
- Budget 2025 and Competitiveness: Investing in Ireland’s Future Prosperity
- NCPC Chair attends the Competitiveness Summit
- Ireland's Competitiveness Challenge 2024
- Bulletin 24-4 IMD World Competitiveness Rankings
- Bulletin 24-3 Competitiveness and the Housing Market in Ireland
- NCPC's Mid-West Regional Seminar
- NCPC Welcomes DETE-ESRI Joint Economic Research Programme Seminar
- Bulletin 24-2 Ireland’s Competitiveness and Productivity Framework
- ESRI Publish Working Paper of DETE ESRI Joint Research Programme
- Bulletin 24-1 Re-estimating Ireland’s International Innovation Performance
Bulletin 26-2: IMD World Competitiveness Rankings 2026
The NCPC is pleased to publish Bulletin 26-2 on IMD World Competitiveness Rankings. This Bulletin provides an assessment of Ireland’s performance in the latest annual World Competitiveness Rankings by the IMD. This year’s IMD report ranks Ireland as the most competitive country in the euro zone area and the 7th most competitive economy in the world (out of 70 economies), maintaining last year's position.
Some of the Key Findings include:
- Ireland is ranked 7th out of 70 economies in the IMD’s World Competitiveness Yearbook in 2026, remaining consistent with the 2025 ranking. Within the euro area, Ireland remained the most competitive.
- Ireland improved across almost all competitiveness trends, particularly under Business Efficiency where our position increased from 11th in 2025 to 5th in 2026, and Economic Performance where our ranking increases from 9th in 2025 to 2nd in 2026 mainly as a result of an increase in ranking associated with the Domestic Economy.
- Ireland’s ranking for Infrastructure worsened from 17th in 2025 to 19th in 2026, whereas Government Efficiency remained stable at 5th place for 2025 and 2026.
The NCPC is pleased to publish Bulletin 26-2 on IMD World Competitiveness Rankings. This Bulletin provides an assessment of Ireland’s performance in the latest annual World Competitiveness Rankings by the IMD, which were published today. Th...
The NCPC is pleased to publish Bulletin 25-4 on IMD World Competitiveness Rankings. This Bulletin provides an assessment of Ireland’s performance in the latest annual World Competitiveness Rankings by the IMD. This year’s IMD report ranks I...
The NCPC is pleased to publish Bulletin 25-3 on The Competitiveness Implications of Post-Pandemic Learning Losses. This Bulletin utilises OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data to analyse the impact of COVID-19-rela...
The NCPC is pleased to publish Bulletin 25-2 on Re-estimating Ireland’s International Competitiveness Performance. This Bulletin explores how Ireland’s performance in the IMD World Competitiveness Ranking 2024 is affected when selected indi...
The National Competitiveness and Productivity Council is pleased to publish Bulletin 25-1 Developments in Ireland's National Productivity Statistics which provides an overview of the latest productivity statistics published by the CSO (Apri...
The National Competitiveness and Productivity Council is pleased to publish Bulletin 24-4 IMD World Competitiveness Rankings which examines Ireland’s fourth place in the IMD’s World Competitiveness rankings. This ranking demonstrates that t...
The National Competitiveness and Productivity Council (NCPC) is pleased to publish Competitiveness Bulletin 24-3 ‘Competitiveness and the Housing Market in Ireland’ which examines the implications of the housing market for Ireland’s competi...
Ireland’s Competitiveness and Productivity Framework bulletin outlines the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council’s (NCPC) recent decision to review the longstanding pyramidal framework.
Ireland’s ranking in the Global Innovation Index (GII) stood at 22nd in 2023, a marginal improvement on 2022 (23rd). Ireland ranked 10th among the EU-27 and continues to perform significantly better under innovation outputs (18th) compared...