Actualidad

This is by one place higher than last year, and considerably higher than its nearest neighbours, Latvia and Poland, which scored 55th and 57th respectively.

“This is a good indicator that helps to keep Lithuania among those countries that foreign investors will consider first, when they begin to look at specific market conditions”, Milda Dargužaitė, the managing director of Invest Lithuania, said when speaking about the choice of foreign investors regarding further development of their business.

In total, 91 countries, 16 of them European countries, improved their positions on the index. Switzerland remains the freest economy in Europe. Based on this index, Lithuania scored 12th of 43 countries in Europe.

The index claims that Lithuania’s higher position is a result of successful efforts to control public finances. To achieve further positive results, Lithuania should speed up reforms in the areas of business and labour, monetary, fiscal and trade freedoms, and anti-corruption.

Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia are the leaders of economic freedom in the world this year. The authors of the survey note that globally, economic freedom has not progressed since 2008. However, some regions, Eastern Europe among them, give cause for optimism.

The economic freedom index is calculated by quantifying factors like the rule of law (property rights and freedom from corruption), government functions (fiscal freedom and government spending), regulatory efficiency (business freedom, labour freedom, and monetary freedom), and open markets (trade, investment and financial freedom).