The Lisbon Indicator ranks countries according to six key criteria decisive for success in the 21st century: economic growth, productivity growth, employment, human capital, future-oriented investment and fiscal sustainability.
European Growth and Jobs Monitor 2008
Among the study’s key findings:
- Assuming that current performance can be upheld, the EU-15 looks to be on course to meet its Lisbon Agenda goals, as demonstrated by the current overall score of 1.05 – up from 0.89, or 89%, at the end of 2006
.- Only three of the countries surveyed – France, Austria and Italy – are currently not on track to meet their Lisbon targets.
- Finland tops the ranking, with high marks on economic growth, labour productivity, human capital and fiscal sustainability; the study suggests that Finland will comfortably overshoot the Lisbon targets.
- Italy is at the bottom of the list, scoring particularly poorly in economic growth, skilled labour, labour productivity and sustainability of public finances.
- France comes in at No. 12 (third to last). The main reasons: sluggish growth and weak public finances.
- The first new EU member state to be included in the ranking, Poland, debuts at No. 5, despite a very mixed performance on sub-indicators. Poland is strong on economic and productivity growth, but scores poorly on employment rate and educational qualifications.
- Eleven countries currently boast faster productivity growth than in the United States – a remarkable shift, particularly in view of Europe’s “jobs miracle”, the creation of six million new jobs in the last two years alone.
- A highly skilled workforce is becoming a key competitive advantage, with Finland, Belgium and Ireland scoring highest on the respective Lisbon sub-indicator.
- Many European countries have not used the recent economic recovery to consolidate their public finances sufficiently and prepare for future challenges, particularly the coming demographic crunch.