Portugal is the 2025 “economy of the year” for the British magazine “The Economist”, which compiled economic data from the 36 richest countries in the world, while Spain, which had won last year, falls to fourth position.
For the fifth consecutive year, “The Economist” magazine created a ranking of the 36 richest countries in the world to find the economy with the best performance.
This year, Portugal appears in first place, dethroning Spain, last year’s winner, and which in 2025 has the same score as Colombia.
To prepare this list, the magazine compiled data on five economic indicators – inflation, inflation deviation, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), employment and stock market performance.
“Em 2025, [Portugal] managed to combine strong GDP growth, low inflation and a booming stock market”writes the magazine.
Driving GDP and employment in Portugal, according to “The Economist”, is tourism, at a time when “many rich foreigners are moving to the country to take advantage of low tax rates”.
In second place in this classification comes Ireland, followed by Israel.
In the worst positions, economies appear mainly in the north of Europe: Estonia, Finland and Slovakia are the last in this compilation of indicators.
In a publication on the X network, the prime minister, Luís Montenegro, stated that “the distinction by ‘The Economist’ magazine that the ‘economy of the year’ was the Portuguese is a fair acclaim of the merit and work of the Portuguese and reinforces the Government’s motivation to follow the path that has brought us here in recent months”.
“It is by reforming with courage and making the country more competitive and productive that we will continue to create jobs, increase wages and strengthen the welfare state. This way we will provide greater well-being and a better future for the Portuguese”the prime minister also wrote.