Morocco tops the ranking of North African countries in terms of economic freedoms, according to the index established by the Canadian think tank Fraser Institute.
In the 2024 edition of this index, Morocco gained seven places to reach 90th place out of the 165 countries included in the report, with a score of 6.46 points out of 10, thus ensuring its first place in South Africa. North, ahead of Tunisia in 118th place with a score of 5.94/10, Mauritania 120th with a score of 5.91/10, Egypt 142nd with a score of 5.36/10, Libya 157th with a score of 4.65/10 and Algeria 161st with a score of 4.64/10.
This index measures the degree of economic freedom present in five main areas, namely the size of government, the legal system and security of property rights, a healthy treasury, freedom to trade internationally and regulation.
In the area of “size of government”, Morocco obtained a score of 6.95 points to rank 66th in the world. It also ranked 70th globally in the domain “legal system and security of property rights”, with a score of 5.31. It also scored more than six points out of ten for the area “healthy cash flow” and more than seven points for “freedom to trade internationally”, ranking 90th in this area.
It should be noted that within the five major areas, the index has 26 components, which are themselves made up of several sub-components. In total, the index includes 44 distinct variables. All variables come from third-party sources, such as the International Country Risk Guide, the Global Competitiveness Report and the World Bank’s Doing Business project, so the subjective judgments of the think tank authors do not influence the index.
Furthermore, the first place in the world went to Hong Kong with 8.58 points, followed by Singapore, Switzerland, New Zealand, Denmark and the United States of America. In the ranking of Arab countries, the United Arab Emirates topped the list after occupying 45th place in the world with 7.39 points, followed by Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. On the other hand, Venezuela brings up the rear ranking 165th with 3.02 points, imitated by Zimbabwe, Sudan and Syria.
Data from the Fraser Institute’s Global Economic Freedom Report, which assesses the extent to which each country’s policies and institutions enable its citizens to make their own economic decisions, shows that only 1% of people living in countries where economic freedom is high live in extreme poverty (less than $2.15 per day), while this figure is around 30% in countries with less economic freedom.
