After the flush of success in climbing world competitiveness rankings by 15 slots last year, Portugal has dropped two places in 2015, being overtaken by the Czech Republic and Lithuania.
Taxes, writes Público, are the “principal concern of businesspeople”, while Observador website adds “bureaucracy, among other problems” led to the fall.
The ranking, announced on Wednesday by the World Economic Forum, means Portugal is among the “10 developed countries to have stayed in a worse place”, writes Observador – but Público gives the news a more positive slant, pointing out that Portugal is pegged at 38th place among 140 countries which is a lot better than two years ago, when it came in in 51st position.
In 2002, however, Portugal was considered a great deal more competitive – then occupying slot number 23.
As Diário de Notícias reports this morning (Wednesday) businesses nationally are “in suspense”, waiting the results of Sunday’s elections.
“There are new signs of stagnation in the employment market”, DN warns, as bosses generally are “more pessimistic” over the likelihood of job creation over the next three months.
