TEHRAN: Iran gained a higher score in the American think tank Heritage Foundation’s 2018 Index of Economic Freedom. The country’s latest economic freedom score stood at 50.9, making the economy the 156th freest out of 180 countries. Its overall score has increased by 0.4 point, with modest improvements in monetary freedom, labor freedom and government integrity offsetting lower scores for the fiscal health, government spending and judicial effectiveness indicators.
Iran is ranked 13th among 14 countries in the Middle East and North Africa region, and its overall score is below the regional and world averages, the report read.
Hong Kong and Singapore received first and second places in the “free” category, with the United States coming in at 18th place in the “mostly free” category. China took the 110th place in the “mostly unfree” category and North Korea came in last among all countries.
The yearly Index of Economic Freedom was launched in 1995 by the Heritage Foundation and American business-focused daily newspaper The Wall Street Journal, and uses four main categories—rule of law, government size, regulatory efficiency and open markets—to calculate economic freedom.
Twelve other categories are also used in the evaluation: property rights, judicial effectiveness, government integrity, tax burden, government spending, fiscal health, business freedom, labor freedom, monetary freedom, trade freedom, investment freedom and financial freedom.
