SOFIA (Bulgaria), September 25 (SeeNews) – Romania is once again the most economically free jurisdiction among 10 countries of Southeast Europe (SEE), the Fraser Institute said in its 2018 annual report on economic freedom in the world.
Six SEE countries have improved their scores compared to last year's edition, three were ranked lower, while Romania remained in the lead, according to the report published on the website of the Canada-based think-tank.
The ranking measures the degree of economic freedom in five broad areas - size of government: expenditures, taxes, and enterprises; legal structure and security of property rights; access to sound money; freedom to trade internationally; and regulation of credit, labour, and business. The 2018 issue of the Economic Freedom report is based on data for 159 countries for 2016, the most recent year of available comparable statistics, the Fraser Institute said.
Romania was 20th in the overall ranking, maintaining the same position as in the last year's edition of the report. The country's high score was largely due to its good performance in terms of monetary indicators and freedom to trade.
Bulgaria climbed to 46th spot, from 48th place due to good performance in the monetary indicators and inflation.
Montenegro advanced to 72nd position, from 85th place, recording the largest leap forward among SEE countries in terms of ranking.
Croatia descended to 75th place from 72nd, marking the largest drop among SEE countries in terms of ranking, mainly due to unimpressive performance in the legal structure and security of property rights area.
Ranking details by country follow:
|
Ranking 2018 |
Ranking 2017 |
Albania |
34 |
32 |
Bosnia |
98 |
99 |
Bulgaria |
46 |
48 |
Croatia |
75 |
72 |
Macedonia |
68 |
67 |
Moldova |
95 |
102 |
Montenegro |
72 |
85 |
Romania |
20 |
20 |
Serbia |
84 |
88 |
Slovenia |
71 |
73 |
Source: The Fraser Institute