SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina), February 1 (SeeNews) – U.S.-based think-tank The Heritage Foundation said Macedonia has once again ranked highest among the countries in Southeastern Europe (SEE) in its global economic freedom chart, while Moldova came in last.
Macedonia climbed six places from last year, to the 47th place, in the 2016 Index of Economic Freedom, The Heritage Foundation said on its website.
The think-tank's index measures economic freedom in 10 categories: labour freedom, business freedom, trade freedom, fiscal freedom, government spending, monetary freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom, property rights and freedom from corruption.
The second best performer among the SEE countries was Albania ranking 59th, up four places from last year, while Bulgaria ranked 60th down from 55th place in 2015. Romania followed closely, coming in at 61, up one place from last year.
Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo ranked 65th, 77th and 84th, respectively, whereas Slovenia followed in 90th place.
The eight SEE countries that ranked in the top 92 best performers in terms of economic freedom are in the “moderately free” segment of the chart.
Croatia lagged behind at the 103rd spot, Bosnia occupied the 108th place, while Moldova came in last among the SEE countries, taking up 117th place. All three countries fell in the "mostly unfree" segment of the chart.
This year, Croatia regressed the most, falling 22 positions from the 81st place in 2015.
"Mired in recession, Croatia’s economy continues to face waning competitiveness and bureaucratic difficulties in the investment environment. Few meaningful steps have been taken to reduce or control government spending, and the bloated public sector severely undermines private-sector dynamism, prolonging the economic downturn in the absence of needed reforms," The Heritage Foundation said.
The top three countries in the 20th annual Index of Economic Freedom, released by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, were Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand.