Israel places 37th on Economic Freedom Index
Israel is ranked 37th in the Heritage Foundation/The Wall
Street Journal 2007 Index of Economic Freedom, three places
lower than last year. The index ranks 157 countries and
territories.
The freest economy is Hong Kong, followed by Singapore,
Australia, the US, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, Luxembourg,
Switzerland and Canada. India is ranked 104th, China 119th
and Russia 120th. The ten least free economies are Guinea-Bissau,
Angola, Iran, Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville),
Turkmenistan, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Libya, Cuba and North Korea.
The annual survey, now in its 13th year, grades countries
on a combination of factors including property rights protection,
tax rates, government intervention in the economy, and monetary,
fiscal and trade policy. A new category this year is labor
freedom, meaning the flexibility of labor laws. Countries
are clustered into groups. The top seven countries are in
the "Free" group, with other countries placed
in a continuum of group from "Mostly Free" to
"Unfree". Israel is classified as "Moderately
Free".
2%
economic growth seen in '07