Poland falls down in The Economist’s economic pentathlon
15:19
The Economist just published the European Economic Pentathlon, in which it awarded each country a gold, silver, or bronze medal in each of the five disciplines, according to the magazine’s assessment of their performance.
The disciplines were: inflation, debt, demography, decarbonization, and decoupling from the world’s autocracies.
Poland ranked 21 out of 27 competitors. Europe’s economic pentathlon has a clear winner: Ireland with four golds and a silver, followed by two Mediterranean islands, another tax haven, and Denmark. Being small clearly has its advantages, though Denmark is the only economic model that could be copied by others. Croatia’s high position is clouded by its demographic problems. The best large economy is France, with two gold medals and three silvers. At the bottom of the table is Hungary, with Italy only a bit better; both with debt problems and a near-term struggle with demand. Germany is luckier: its one gold medal, on inflation, masks its three bronzes—on demography, decoupling, and decarbonization.
Poland, a strong economic performer for years, received only bronze medals on inflation and demography, dragging it down our list. Just as in Germany’s case, winning economic prizes in the past says little about who will be the winners in the next few years.
