Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) – The Heritage Foundation has published the Economic Freedom Index for 2021, which is issued annually and has ranked countries in the world in terms of economic freedom for 27 years.
This year, the UAE ranked first in the Arab world, with 76.9 points on the index out of 100, while Qatar followed it second on the Arab list with a total of 72.0 points. The index rates a score between 70 and 79.9 as “mostly free”.
On the global rankings, the UAE and Qatar ranked 14th and 31st, respectively.
On the global level, Singapore ranked first with a total of 89.7 points, followed by New Zealand at 83.9 points. The index rates a score between 80 and 100 as completely free.
The index defines economic freedom as “the basic right of every human being to control his work and his property.” He refers to economically free societies, as those in which “their members enjoy freedom to work, produce, consume and invest in any way they prefer. In economically free societies, governments allow labor, capital and commodities to move freely.”
The index is based on 12 factors grouped into 4 pillars of economic freedom: rule of law, government size, regulatory efficiency, and open markets, including property rights, government integrity, judicial efficiency, government spending, tax burden, financial health, freedom of work, and monetary freedom. Freedom of trade, freedom of investment, and financial freedom.
To calculate the extent of freedom of the countries included in the index, each of the 12 economic freedoms factors is classified on a scale of points from 0 to 100, and then the final score for each country is derived by calculating the average of these economic freedoms.
Learn more about the performance of the Arab countries in the year 2021 on the Infographic Index of Economic Freedom above:
