June 9 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's government needs to implement reforms aimed at improving judicial effectiveness and government integrity in order to improve the country's overall economic freedom, U.S.-based think-tank The Heritage Foundation said.
"Bulgaria has one of the lowest scores in Europe on the Corruption Perceptions Index, and Transparency International reports persistent and unaddressed problems that include dirty money in politics, unregulated lobbying, a lack of uniform anticorruption policies, nontransparent appointments to key public offices, and no clear ethics policy for the parliament," The Heritage Foundation's 2020 Index of Economic Freedom reads.
However, Bulgaria climbed one place to the 36th spot out of 186 countries included in the 2020 Index of Economic Freedom, The Heritage Foundation said upon the release of the chart. Bulgaria is ranked 19th among 45 countries in the Europe region, and its overall score is just above the regional average and well above the world average, according to the ranking.
The index measures economic freedom in 12 areas - from property rights to entrepreneurship - through 12 quantitative and qualitative factors, grouped into four broad categories: rule of law, government size, regulatory efficiency and open markets.
The country performed best in the size of government category, with its highest scores in the fiscal health and tax burden indicators. The overall tax burden equals 27.7 percent of total domestic income, while public debt is equivalent to 20.5% of GDP.