September 15 (SeeNews) - Romania is the top performer among 10 countries of Southeast Europe (SEE) in terms of economic freedom, Canada-based Fraser Institute said in its 2016 annual report on economic freedom in the world.
Five SEE countries improved their scores compared to the 2015 edition, four were ranked lower and Serbia remained at its previous ranking, according to the report published on the Fraser Institute website.
The ranking measures the degree of economic freedom in five broad areas - size of government: expenditures, taxes, and enterprises; legal structure and security of property rights; access to sound money; freedom to trade internationally; and regulation of credit, labour, and business. The 2015 issue of the Economic Freedom report is based on data for 2014 for 159 countries.
Romania was 22nd in the overall ranking, down five places from last year's edition of the report. The country's high score was largely due to its good performance in terms of freedom to trade and access to sound money, which outweighed the results of the subindex designed to measure the extent to which regulations and bureaucratic procedures are affecting business and competition.
Bulgaria ranked 45th, down from the 42nd spot it occupied in the 2015 edition due to unimpressive performance in the legal structure and security of property rights area.
Slovenia climbed to the 97th spot, from the 111th place. However, the country scored poorly in terms of size of government - the area which shows the share of government consumption in a country's budget. When that ratio is high, political choice is substituted for personal choice, Fraser Institute explained.
Slovenia's score was also low in terms of regulation of credit, labour, and business. Those ratings show that the country's regulations restrict entry into markets and interfere with the freedom to engage in voluntary exchange, hence they reduce economic freedom. On the positive side, the country scored relatively high at its legal structure.
Macedonia also fell in the rankings, to the 65th place from the 60th a year earlier, dragged lower by its deteriorating performance in terms of size of government and access to sound money.
Albania was the country which recorder the largest improvement in its score, advancing 20 places to the 42nd spot, after it improved its score in access to sound money, size of government and international trade freedom.
Montenegro climbed to the 59th from the 62th place, mainly due to the improvement in international trade freedom.
Bosnia and Herzegovina dropped to the 91st spot from the 78th place, due to deteriorating performance in terms of size of government.
The newest EU-member Croatia climbed to the 81st place, from the 84th spot. However, the country's score in the government size and business regulation categories were still among the weakest in the list.
Moldova ranked in the 99th place, up from 103th, again due to strong score in the credit market regulations subindex.
Serbia remained at 101th place as its score remained weak in the areas of credit market regulations and business regulations.