Argentina is among the world’s least economically free countries in an international ranking assessing judicial independence, rule of law, government’s weight on society and other key factors.

Among the 165 countries measured in this report published in recent hours, the 10 lowest ranked countries are the Republic of Congo, Algeria, Argentina, Libya, Iran, Yemen, Sudan, Syria, Zimbabwe and finally Venezuela.

The country governed by Alberto Fernández It occupies 158th place in this ranking led by Singapore, followed by Switzerland, New Zealand, the United States, Ireland, Denmark, Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada.

“Argentina, once again, among the 10 least free economies in the world,” he said. Nicolas Cachanosky, director of the Center for Free Enterprise at the University of Texas, USA, following the release of this report. The Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute and the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos also carry out similar measurements with negative results for the country in this area.

In this case, it’s a report from the Fraser Institute, Canada’s leading think tank, one of the top 15 think tanks in the world, according to the University of Pennsylvania.

The World Economic Freedom Index assesses “the extent to which countries’ policies and institutions support economic freedom.” According to liberal Fraser, “the cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, the freedom to access and compete in markets, and the security of people and private property.”

The degree of economic freedom is measured in five broad areas: Size of government (public spending, taxes, and size of government-controlled businesses); Legal system and property rights (the protection of people and their rightfully acquired property is a central element of both economic freedom and civil society); money (inflation erodes the value of legitimately earned wages and savings); The freedom to trade internationally (in its broadest sense, buying, selling, contracting is the very essence of economic freedom); Regulation (governments not only use various tools to limit the right to trade internationally, but can also impose onerous regulations).

In recent decades, in Argentina, the weight of public spending on GDP and the tax pressure on the formal sector of the economy have increased, while the growth of GDP per capita has stagnated and the level of poverty has increased. .

After the anomaly of 2020 due to the pandemic, the new index reflected that for the first time in the history of the index in 1996, “Hong Kong fell from its first position.” “The Chinese government has imposed significant new entry barriers, limits on the employment of foreign labor and increased costs of doing business, leading to a decline in Hong Kong’s regulatory component. »

“Meanwhile, increasing military interference in the rule of law and the erosion of confidence in the judicial independence and impartiality of Hong Kong’s courts have led to a decline in the legal system of jurisdiction and its property rights component,” he says.

As Hong Kong declined, “Singapore’s score improved, with improvements in the size of its government and regulatory components, Singapore’s overall score increased by points to take first place.”

“The next countries with the highest scores are Switzerland, New Zealand, USA, Ireland, Denmark, Australia, United Kingdom and Canada,” explain the Fraser experts.

The ranking of other major countries was: Taiwan (11th), Japan (20th), Germany (23rd), Korea (42nd), France (47th), Italy (53rd), Mexico (68th), India (87th), Russia ( 104th), Brazil (90th) and China (111th). Argentina ranked 158th in the midst of an electoral campaign in which the level of state intervention is the center of attention above other sensitive issues and with little precedent in history from the country.