Bulgaria Is 68th in Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom Ratings

Bulgaria ranks 68th in the "Economic Freedom of the World: 2008 Annual Report" prepared by Canada's Fraser Institute, the Institute for Market Economics (IME) said.
Bulgaria climbed seven notches from last year's 74th place and ranks immediately after countries such as Armenia, Ghana and Albania. Its economic freedom index rose from 6.58 to 6.82 points out of 10.
Hong Kong ranks first in the world, followed by Singapore and New Zealand. Once again, Zimbabwe trails the table of 141 countries included in the study.
The cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete, and security of privately owned property. The Fraser Institute uses 42 variables to construct a summary index and to measure the degree of economic freedom in five broad areas: size of government; legal structure and security of property rights; access to sound money; freedom to trade internationally; and regulation of credit, labor and business.
Economic freedom in Bulgaria is growing, albeit slowly. State overinterference and the lack of adequate protection of property rights are persistent problems, said IME's Peter Ganev.
Source: BTA; Photo: Profit.bg