Georgia: Emerging Europe’s Leader in Economic Freedom

Emerging Europe has recently published the article, entitled 'Georgia: Emerging Europe’s Leader in Economic Freedom.'

Based on the publication, Georgia is emerging Europe’s highest ranked country in the latest edition of the Fraser Institute’s annual Economic Freedom of the World report.

"The country in the South Caucasus, which has for a number of years also been in the region’s leader in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings, is the eighth most economically free country in the world, behind only Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland, Australia, the United States, and Mauritius. Georgia scores particularly well for the freedom to trade internationally: its trade score of 9.03 is the third highest in the world," reads the article. 

The Fraser Institute report measures the economic freedom – defined as the ability of individuals to make their own economic decisions – by analyzing the policies and institutions of 162 countries and territories. Indicators include regulation, freedom to trade internationally, size of government, property rights, government spending and taxation. The 2020 report is based on data from 2018, the latest year of comparable statistics.

Lithuania (11th), Estonia (14th), Armenia (18th), and Latvia (19th) also make the global top 20, ahead of countries such as Japan and Germany.

Of the emerging Europe and Central Asia nations included in the report, Ukraine (131st) and Tajikistan (132nd) have the lowest levels of economic freedom. Globally, the lowest level of economic freedom in the world is in Venezuela.

People living in countries with high levels of economic freedom enjoy greater prosperity, more political and civil liberties, and longer lives.

By Ana Dumbadze 

Source: Emerging Europe

See the full report here