Georgia ranks seventh among the world’s 162 countries and territories in the annual Economic Freedom of the World report, released on September 25 by the Fraser Institute, a public policy think tank based in Vancouver, Canada.
The report measures the degree of economic freedom of nations for 2016 – the latest year for which the data was available – in five broad areas: size of government; legal system and property rights; sound money; freedom to trade internationally; and regulation.
According to the report, Georgia is behind Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland, Ireland and United States with a cumulative score of 8.2 (out of 10). In 2015, the country ranked 9th with a cumulative score of 7.98.
Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze welcomed the country’s progress in a Twitter post, saying “positive results highlight importance of pursuing ambitious reforms to deliver tangible benefits for the business sector.”
Proud to see #Georgia on 7th place in @FraserInstitute Economic Freedom of the World 2018 report.Positive results highlight importance of pursuing ambitious reforms to deliver tangible benefits 4 business sctr. Georgia is more business-friendly than ever! https://t.co/SjUGsI861j
— Mamuka Bakhtadze (@BakhtadzeMamuka) September 25, 2018
The Fraser Institute produces the annual Economic Freedom of the World report in cooperation with the Economic Freedom Network, a group of independent research and educational institutes in nearly 100 countries and territories. The Network member in Georgia is the New Economic School (NESG), a libertarian think-tank based in Tbilisi.
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