Country of the year: The Economist’s pick for 2025
Economist Podcasts
The Economist
4.4 • 5K Ratings
🗓️ 19 December 2025
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Each year, The Economist tries to identify which country has improved the most, whether economically, politically or in other ways. In a turbulent year, the choice was tricky. We unveil the result. And The Economist Educational Foundation helps kids worldwide be more news-savvy. We invite you to donate and support its work: https://economistfoundation.org/donate/.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Economist. |
| 0:10.2 | Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist. |
| 0:13.4 | I'm Jason Palmer. |
| 0:14.6 | And I'm Rosie Bloor. |
| 0:16.1 | Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. |
| 0:26.1 | Thank you. day, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. In my off time, I've been doing a lot of work with our sister organization, the Economist |
| 0:30.5 | Educational Foundation, making kids worldwide more news savvy. Today, we visit a school to see |
| 0:37.3 | the Foundation's work in action, and talk about how you can be a part of it. But first... 2020 has been quite the year. Just cast your mind back a little. |
| 1:16.6 | The smoke was coming and the fire was coming and I just had a walk. |
| 1:19.8 | You should be thanking the president for trying to bring it into this conflict. |
| 1:23.1 | Have you not been to Ukraine that you say what problems we have? |
| 1:26.0 | Explosions have been heard in the capital, Tehran, at least six explosions. |
| 1:30.8 | The new pope will be chosen by cardinal electors. |
| 1:33.6 | And splash down. Crew nine back on Earth. |
| 1:37.1 | January saw the start of Donald Trump's second term in the White House. |
| 1:41.0 | Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. |
| 1:47.0 | I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear. I, Donald John Trump. |
| 1:49.0 | A ceasefire was finally reached in Israel's war in Gaza. |
| 1:53.0 | Though the future of the enclave remains unclear. |
| 1:59.0 | Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine drags on. |
| 2:06.7 | Other countries around the world |
| 2:08.6 | faced political flux and leadership changes, |
... |
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