Ireland has ranked ninth in a list of more than 30 countries as a location for private business to thrive, representing a drop of two places from last year but is up from 14th place two years ago.
The PwC Private Business Attractiveness Index ranks 33 European, Middle East and African countries based on nine categories including macroeconomics, the business landscape, tax and regulatory environment, sustainability, governance, public health, education and skills, technology infrastructure and startup ecosystem.
Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, the UK, Finland, Ireland and Spain make up the top 10 list of countries on the index.
Among the categories where Ireland improved its standing in this year's study include the "start-up ecosystem", and "education, skills and talent" where the country went from 12th to 9th place.
The country came in 10th place for "tax and regulatory environmen",, up from 11th last year, and a marked improvement from 20th position in 2021.
There was some concern around the ranking for "macroeconomics" which fell to 6th position from first place last year.
"Much of this significant slip in ranking for the macroeconomic metric stemmed from the costs of living crisis and cost increases being felt most strongly during 2023 in the private businesses sector," the report noted.
"In this regard, Ireland ranked 30 out of 33 for the cost of electricity and 29 out of 33 for the cost of living metrics leading to an impact on our overall macroeconomic standing."
Ireland scored 13th and 8th respectively for "sustainability and climate" and "social, responsibility and governance".
"The overall fall in the index by two positions this year to 9th place for Ireland reflects the intense pressure that some private businesses are under and the urgent need for continued supports for this important sector of our economy," Colm O’Callaghan, Partner, PwC Private said.
"The overall fall in the index by two positions this year to 9th place for Ireland reflects the intense pressure that some private businesses are under and the urgent need for continued supports for this important sector of our economy. Over the last few years, private businesses had to deal with the pandemic, then a period of steep inflation, high interest rates, electricity price increases and other cost pressures often while working with restrained cash flows," he added.
That was being added to, Mr O'Callaghan noted, by additional cost pressures on business this year.
"Long term simple and clear policy measures aimed at supporting Private Business, so as to further encourage entrepreneurship and innovation has to be a key driver of Government over the next 12 to 24 months," he concluded.
