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By Siranush Ghazanchyan
(ArmRadio) – With an overall score of 67.0, Armenia is ranked 54th in the 2016 Index of Economic Freedom, released by the Heritage Foundation. Placed two positions lower than last year, Armenia is rated as a “moderately free” country.
Other countries in the region are ranked as follows: Georgia – 24th, Azerbaijan – 91st, Turkey – 79th, Iran – 171th.
Armenia’s partners in the Eurasian Economic Union, Russia and Belarus, are placed 153rd and 157th respectively. Kazakhstan is 68th and Kyrgyzstan is 96th.
Overall, Hong Kong ranks first, followed by Singapore and New Zealand.
According to the report, considerable diversification of the economic base has increased economic dynamism in Armenia. A broad simplification of business procedures lead to regulatory efficiency. Following expansionary fiscal policies in recent years, steps have been taken to limit government costs through more prudent public finance management.
The Index of Economic Freedom focuses on four key aspects of the economic environment over which governments typically exercise policy control: rule of law, government size, regulatory efficiency, and market openness.
In assessing conditions in these four categories, the Index measures 10 specific components of economic freedom, each of which is graded on a scale from 0 to 100. Scores on these 10 components of economic freedom, which are calculated from a number of sub-variables, are equally weighed and averaged to produce an overall economic freedom score for each economy.