Belarus fell to 155th Place in Economic Freedom Ranking

12.01.2011 16:15
Архив Редакция

Belarus dropped from 150th position to 155th one tohether with such countries as Maldives and Lesotho in the annual ranking of economic freedom, compiled by the U.S. research center Heritage and the newspaper The Wall Street Journal. A year earlier, Belarus was among Sao Tome and Principe and Equatorial Guinea according to the economic freedom index. 

Belarus is ranked 42nd among the 43 countries in the Europe region, leaving behind only the Ukraine. Overall economic freedom score is 47.9, which is 0.8 points worse than in 2010 due to declines in five of the 10 economic freedoms (business freedom, fiscal freedom, government spending, monetary freedom, labor freedom). In this case, growth rates were recorded only on one point — freedom from corruption.

In addition to these economic freedoms, the rating is complimented by investment freedom, financial freedom, trade freedom and property rights. «Although Belarus has undergone minor advances towards deregulation, a major shift toward a more liberal economic policy has not been a priority. Corruption remains widespread, and the enforcement of property rights is subject to an ineffective judiciary and time-consuming bureaucracy. Government interference with the private sector still weakens monetary freedom, investment freedom, and financial freedom,» author of the rankings noted.

In total, ranking includes 183 countries (experts have no data on four of them). The freest in the 2010 Index are (the location and points of the previous ranking are shown in brackets):

1 (1). Hong Kong — 89.7 (89.7)
2 (2). Singapore — 87.2 (86.1)
3 (3). Australia — 82.5 (82.6)
4 (4). New Zealand — 82.3 (82.1)
5 (6). Switzerland — 81.9 (81.1)
6 (7). Canada — 80.8 (80.4)
7 (5). Ireland — 78.7 (81.3)
8 (9). Denmark — 78.6 (77.9)
9 (8). USA — 77.8 (78.0)
10 (13). Bahrain — 77.7 (76.3)

The ratings of the former USSR:

14 (16). Estonia — 75.2 (74.7)
24 (29). Lithuania — 71.3 (70.3)
29 (26). Georgia — 70.4 (70.4)
36 (38). Armenia — 69.7 (69.2)
56 (50). Latvia — 65.8 (66.2)
78 (82). Kazakhstan — 62.1 (61.0)
83 (80). Kyrgyzstan — 61.1 (61.3)
92 (96). Azerbaijan — 59.7 (58.8)
120 (125). Moldova — 55,7 (53,7)
128 (128). Tajikistan — 53.5 (53.0)
143 (143). Russia — 50.5 (50.3)
163 (158). Uzbekistan — 45.8 (47.5)
164 (162). Ukraine — 45.8 (46.4)
169 (171). Turkmenistan — 43.6 (42.5)

Poland, Belarus’ neighbor, was placed on the 68th position (64.1), having risen up in rank from 71st (63.2) position. The last position, as a year earlier, was given to North Korea with one score.

Как вам новость?