The digital economy encompasses economic activities that utilize digital technologies such as the internet, artificial intelligence, and modern communication technologies. This phenomenon has not only transformed methods of production and trade but has also exerted profound impacts on the competitiveness of countries at the international level. Competitiveness refers to a country’s ability to compete in domestic and international markets. This study investigates the asymmetric effects of digital economy growth on the competitiveness index in Iran. The period of study was from 1370 to 1401, and the NARDL (Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag) method was used for statistical analysis. This model incorporates positive and negative changes in the digital economy variable into the equation separately. The results Wald test rejects the symmetry hypothesis in both the short-term and long-term horizons. Therefore, positive and negative shocks in the digital economy do not have the same effect on competitiveness, and the asymmetric effect is confirmed. Also Indicators such as good governance, economic stability, and digital infrastructure have a positive and significant effect on Iran's competitiveness. However, digital economy education and training indices show no statistically significant impact on competitiveness in Iran.