European Commission, (2013), “Member States’ Competitiveness Performance and Implementation of EU Industrial Policy report 2013”, European Commission, 25 Σεπτεμβρίου.
Progress has been made by Member States to improve the competitiveness of their economies, but many challenges still remain. An updated Industrial performance scoreboard assesses Member States’ industrial performance in five key areas, namely innovation and sustainability; business environment, services and infrastructure; public administration; finance and investment; and skills.
The areas of progress include the business environment that has improved in most Member States, even though this is also a trend seen around of the world. Moreover, exports have performed well and have been the main driver of industrial activity, and most Member States have also improved the skills base of their workforce. While innovation has continued to improve over a number of years, convergence amongst Member States seems to have ended since 2012.
The main problems identified include unresponsive investment since the onset of the crisis; high energy prices for industry; the deterioration of access to finance; and the need to improve the efficiency and effective of public administration in a number of Member States.
To facilitate analysis, the report has used cluster analysis to group Member States in three groups:
- The consistent cluster – Member States that perform well in all areas of competitiveness: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK.
- The moderate cluster – Member States that perform well in some competitiveness areas but have difficulties and deterioration in others: Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Slovenia.
- The catching-up cluster – Member States that face significant challenges in many areas but that are quickly improving: Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
You could check a couple of more analytic country-reports, by pressing the relevant country:
Σχετικές Αναρτήσεις
- World Economic Forum, (2013), “The Global Competitiveness Report”, 4 Σεπτεμβρίου.
- Darvas, Z., (2013), “The euro area’s tightrope walk: debt and competitiveness in Italy and Spain”, www.bruegel.org, 3 Σεπτεμβρίου.
- Whyte, P. and Tilford, S. eds., (2013), The future of Europe’s economy: Disaster or deliverance?, Center for European Reform, 18 Σεπτεμβρίου.