Belarus is ranked 150th in Index of Economic Freedom

Belarus has only moved 9.7 places up over the period of 20 years.

“Index of Economic Freedom” research was conducted for the 19^th time.

Our country occupies 150^th place out of 178 possible.

Hong Kong was ranked the world`s freest economy. According to Index prepared by the Heritage Foundation and experts from The Wall Street Journal, Singapore, Australia, Switzerland, New Zealand and Canada are also on the list of countries with free economy.

Nepal and Ethiopia occupy next place to Belarus on the list. Our neighbouring countries take the following places: Ukraine – 155^th, Russia – 140^th. Lithuania (21^st), Estonia (11^th), Poland (50^th) and Latvia (42^nd) are on the list of countries with moderately free economy.

Belarus’s economic freedom score is 50.1, making its economy the 150th freest in the 2014 Index. Its overall score is 2.1 points better than last year, mainly due to notable improvements in investment freedom and government spending. However, Belarus is ranked 42nd among the 43 countries in the Europe region.

The report mentions that over the 20-year history of the Index, Belarus has improved its economic freedom score by 9.7 points, driven by gains in seven of the 10 economic freedoms including fiscal freedom, monetary freedom, and trade freedom. Offsetting much of the overall score gain, three other critical areas of economic freedom—property rights, investment freedom, and financial freedom—have recorded losses of 20 points or more over the same period.

In the 2014 Index, Belarus has moved up from the economic freedom status of “repressed” for the first time. Nonetheless, pervasive state controls persist in many areas of the economy, and widespread state investment and redistribution activities have stifled progress in the development of a modern diversified economy.

Northern Korea concludes the Index. Cuba (177^th place), Zimbabwe (176^th) and Venezuela (175) are among outsiders.

The Index of Economic Freedom documents the positive relationship between economic freedom and a variety of positive social and economic goals. Economic freedom is measured based on both quantitative and qualitative factors, grouped into four broad pillars of economic freedom: rule of Law (property rights, freedom from corruption); limited government (fiscal freedom, government spending); regulatory efficiency (business freedom, labour freedom, monetary freedom); and open markets (trade freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom).