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, launched the fifth edition of the Elite Quality Index (EQx2024). This is the main international ranking of political economy, which measures how the elites’ wealth generation model is more or less extractive in terms of power (political and economic) and its potential for translation into value (political and economic) , penalizing or favoring, respectively, the country’s progress.
The fifth edition of this study analyzed 151 countries and 146 indicators. It was possible to verify that the overall quality index of the Portuguese elite showed a significant improvement in 2024 (1.4 points compared to the previous year, to 58.4 points) and an increase of five places in the ranking, but that only reflects a recovery compared to the drop recorded in the previous year, placing Portugal back in 25th place.
Portugal’s rise in EQx2024 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 capital financing of risk and the evolution of the number of billionaires, “indicators that can vary a lot in a relatively small economy, like the Portuguese one, with just a few billionaires and a small risk capital market”, explains the director of the FEP, Óscar Afonso.
On the other hand, the value sub-index performed worse compared to the previous year, as a result of a fall in economic value, the area of the index that has the greatest weight.
“Indicators related to production and work showed a worrying trend, showing a deterioration in several indicators, such as those relating to health costs, foreign direct investment and productivity”, adds 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) at FEP, Nuno Torres.
Below average indicators
With regard to the new indicators included in this edition, the classifications are below the national average (25th place). Portugal occupies 55th place in the housing accessibility index, 41st place in railway network density and 27th place in the global artificial intelligence index.
“While Portugal made progress in mitigating the extractive potential of the elites, measured by the power sub-index, this did not prevent a deterioration in terms of value generated in 2024, originating in economic value. Going further back, comparing with the first edition of the index (relating to the year 2020, in which most indicators were reported to 2019), it appears that the power sub-index is above the pre-pandemic level, but the power sub-index is value has not yet reached this level. This implies that the potential reduction in extraction by elites compared to what occurred before the pandemic has not yet translated into effective progress, for the benefit of society, in terms of value generated by elite business models”, concludes the director of the FEP, Óscar Afonso.
International results
In international terms, Singapore reached first place in the ranking, returning to the top, after being overtaken by Switzerland last year. Despite the political and economic differences between these two countries, both stand out for the sustainable creation of value, through the business models of their respective elites. The Netherlands, Japan and New Zealand complete the top 5 in the ranking.
The United Kingdom was outside the top 10 this year, occupying 11th position, and since Brexit it has lost ground in global rankings and failed to attract foreign investment.
