In the 5th edition of this study - prepared by FEP and the University of Saint Gallen (Switzerland), in collaboration with an international network of partners and academic institutions -- the index of the overall quality of the Portuguese elite recorded a "significant improvement" of 1.4 points, to 58.4 points, according to a statement released by the Portuguese faculty.

Despite having recovered ground in the quality of elites, Portugal shows, according to the results obtained, "economic challenges in health, investment, productivity, housing and railways".

Presented as "the main international ranking of political economy", the Elite Quality Index "measures the way in which the elites' wealth generation model is more or less extractive in terms of power (political and economic)", also assessing "its potential for translation into value (political and economic), penalizing or favoring, respectively, the progress of their country".

In this edition of the study (EQx2024), 151 countries and 146 indicators were analyzed, reflecting "inflation, challenges to global trade and cooperation, and the war in Europe and the Middle East" and revealing "a picture of global sustainable value creation and prospects for future growth".

According to FEP, Portugal's rise in this year's edition "is mainly due to the 'Power' sub-index, in which the country rose to 14th position, largely reflecting the rise of two indicators of the disruptive innovation pillar with strong weight, namely venture capital financing and the evolution of the number of billionaires".

Quoted in the statement, FEP director Óscar Afonso notes that these indicators "can vary greatly in a relatively small economy like Portugal's, with only a few billionaires and a small venture capital market".

On the other hand, Portugal had a "worse performance" in the "Value" sub-index, "as a result of a drop in 'Economic Value', the area of the index with the greatest weight".

"Indicators related to production and labor showed a worrying trend, showing a deterioration in several indicators, such as those related to health costs, foreign direct investment and productivity", details Óscar Afonso, author of the study at national level, together with Professor Cláudia Ribeiro and the coordinator of the Office of Economic, Business and Public Policy Studies (G3E2P) of FEP, Nuno Torres.

Regarding the new indicators included in this edition, the classifications obtained by Portugal are below the national average (25th place): The country ranks 55th in the "Housing Affordability" index, 41st in the "Railway Network Density" and 27th in the global "Artificial Intelligence" index.

"While Portugal has made progress in mitigating the extractive potential of elites, as measured by the 'Power' sub-index, this has not prevented a deterioration in terms of value generated in 2024, originating from economic value", explains Óscar Afonso.

"Going further back -- he adds -, comparing with the first edition of the index (for the year 2020), it is clear that the 'Power' sub-index is above the pre-pandemic level, but the 'Value' sub-index has not yet reached that level".

According to the FEP director, "this implies that the potential reduction in extraction by the elites compared to what was seen before the pandemic has not yet translated into effective progress, for the benefit of society, in terms of value generated by the elites' business models".

In international terms, the first place in the EQx2024 ranking is occupied by Singapore, which returned to the top after being overtaken by Switzerland last year. The top five of the ranking is completed by the Netherlands, Japan and New Zealand.

This year, the United Kingdom fell out of the top 10, occupying 11th position, with FEP stating that the country, "since Brexit, has lost ground in global rankings and failed to attract foreign investment".

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