The latest study conducted by the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto (FEP) and the University of Saint Gallen in Switzerland, in collaboration with an international network of partners and academic institutions, reveals a decline in the overall quality of the Portuguese elite. This deterioration is chiefly attributed to a “negative evolution in the power sub-index, particularly concerning the economic power of the elites.”
The FEP highlights a notable decline in the “creative destruction” pillar, which assesses the dynamic renewal of the economic fabric. This drop is linked to the introduction of two new indicators related to private investment in artificial intelligence, an area where Portugal ranks unfavorably.
Furthermore, Portugal has shown underperformance in the value sub-index, indicating “a loss of economic value, marked by a set of persistent structural weaknesses.” These include weak labor productivity growth, high youth unemployment, brain drain, low workforce participation, and housing access difficulties.
However, improvements have been observed in indicators such as the public debt ratio and environmental performance.
The FEP cautions against significant losses in economic value generation capacity, noting that “the trend of declining elite quality—linked to internal structural weaknesses that lead to a less competitive economic model—hinders an effective response to increasingly complex global challenges.”
Portugal has fallen to the 30th position among 151 countries but remains within the top quintile.
This index considers 149 indicators grouped into four major dimensions: economic power, political power, economic value, and political value.
Singapore retained its position at the top of the ranking, followed by the United States, which improved to second place due to strong performance in AI indicators, overtaking Switzerland, which slipped to third.
