Morocco Leads North Africa in Global Economic Freedom Index

The American think tank Heritage Institute has published its 28th ranking of the index of economic freedom. This index is measured on the basis of 12 qualitative and quantitative indicators of freedom grouped into four broad categories: rule of law (property rights, government integrity, judicial effectiveness), government size (public spending, tax burden, budget stability), regulatory efficiency (business freedom, labor freedom, monetary freedom) and market openness (trade freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom).

With 59.2 points out of 100, down -4.1 points compared to the 2021 score, Morocco ranks 97th in the world and is in first place in North Africa ahead of Mauritania 55.3 points (-0.8 points), 119th place in the world, Tunisia 54.2 (-2.4), 128th, Egypt 152nd (-6.9), 49.1 and Algeria 45.8 points (-3.9 points), 167th. The kingdom is ranked 6th out of 14 countries in the MENA region. It achieved its best scores on the criteria of monetary freedom (80.0 points), financial freedom (70.0 points), trade freedom (68.6 points), public spending (69.8 points), tax pressure (68.2 points), business freedom (64.8 points)... On the other hand, the poor scores were recorded on the criteria of judicial effectiveness (32.7 points), government integrity (32.7 points) and labor freedom (46.4 points).

With a score of 84.4 points, Singapore tops the global ranking of economic freedoms. It is followed by Switzerland (84.2 points), Ireland (82.0), New Zealand (80.6 points) and Luxembourg (80.6 points).