World Economic Freedom 2016: Mauritius First in Africa

Mauritius tops the rankings in Africa and is placed at the 5th position worldwide with regard to Economic Freedom according to the Fraser Institute’s annual Economic Freedom of the World report released on 15th September 2016 in Canada.

 

With an average score of 7.98 Mauritius is tied for fifth along with Canada; Georgia; Ireland; and United Arab Emirates and is positioned among the top rated ten countries with an economic freedom worldwide.

 

Fraser Institute, an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organisation connected to a global network of think-tanks in 87 countries assesses 159 countries and territories based on five areas namely: size of government; legal structure and security of property rights; access to sound money; freedom to trade internationally; and regulation of credit, labour and business.

 

In this year’s ranking, which is based on 2014 data, Hong Kong is again at the number one position followed by Singapore at number two. The index published in Economic Freedom of the World measures the degree to which the policies and institutions of countries are supportive of economic freedom.

 

The report also assesses country’s performance in the above-mentioned categories. According to the report, Mauritius has performed relatively well on the various indices with the following scores: size of government (7.6) rank 36th; legal structure and security of property rights (6.5) rank 42nd; access to sound money (9.6) rank 25th; freedom to trade internationally (8.5) rank 6th; and regulation of credit, labour and business (7.7) rank 39th.

 

It will be recalled that since its first publication in 1996, numerous studies have used the data published in Economic Freedom of the World to examine the impact of economic freedom on investment, economic growth, income levels, and poverty rates.

 

For the full report please go to:

Economic Freedom of the World