(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The UAE, Bahrain and Jordan are the most economically free nations in the Arab world, according to the latest Economic Freedom of the Arab World report.
The report is published annually by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank, in partnership with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty and the International Research Foundation of Oman.
All three countries posted scores of 8.0. For the UAE, an Arab leader in commerce, and Bahrain, the region's financial hub, the score represented a slight decrease from their 8.1 scores that topped last year's report. Jordan, which ranked second last year, maintained its 8.0 score.
The UAE, which has been ranked as the happiest Arab country in the world in a recent United Nations report, and 14th happiest overall, stood 19th overall on the Global Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum.
Early this year, the UAE was ranked among the five emerging economies that had notably improved economic freedom in recent years by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative American think tank. According to data collected for the 2013 Index of Economic Freedom by the Heritage Foundation, the UAE had survived the global economic turmoil with sustained positive growth rates,
"Economic freedom is the key to increasing prosperity, creating jobs and reducing poverty. Economic freedom liberates people from government dependence and opens the door to democracy and other freedoms," said Fred McMahon, Dr. Michael A. Walker Research Chair in Economic Freedom (Fraser Institute) and co-author of the report. Among the other Gulf nations, Kuwait was ranked fourth (7.8) while Oman and Qatar were joint sixth (7.6) and Saudi Arabia eighth (7.4).
Among the 18 nations in this year's report, Algeria, last year's last place country, again holds the dubious distinction of being the least economically free nation in the Arab world with a score of 5.8. Mauritania and Iraq ranked 16th and 17th, with scores of 6.3 and 6.1 respectively. Due to the civil war in Syria, and the questionable data emanating from that country, it was not ranked in this year's report. The Economic Freedom of the Arab World report compares and ranks Arab nations in five areas of economic freedom: size of government, including expenditures, taxes, and enterprises; commercial and economic law and security of property rights; access to sound money; freedom to trade internationally; and regulation of credit, labour, and business.
Economic freedom is based on the cornerstones of personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete, and security of private property. Research shows that individuals living in countries with high levels of economic freedom enjoy higher levels of prosperity, greater individual freedoms and longer life spans. A denial of economic freedom helped spark the "Arab Spring." This report provides a timely reminder of the importance of real reform to increase economic freedom and prosperity throughout the region.
The report measures available data on economic freedom in 22 nations of the League of Arab States, but due to data limitations, calculations of the overall level of economic freedom are only available for 18 jurisdictions: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Sudan, Iraq and the UAE.
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