In my experience, Clojure performs rather well. I used to use Python for what I now use Clojure and it seems to outperform that.

Sure, Java and C++ perform better still. I don't feel like Clojure is trying to compete with them on performance, rather Clojure is competing with the dynamic languages and allows you to drop down to lower levels (type hints, Java interop) when you do need more performance. Developer productivity first, performance second.

If I need C++ performance, then I use C++ because few languages can compete with that, but for most of my work (web development), I don't need to.