Georgia passed ahead of Armenia and Azerbaijan in the rating of economic freedom

Georgia moved from the 29th position in 2011 in the rating of economic freedom index to the 34th place in 2012. This is the best index among the countries of Southern Caucasus mentioned in a report drawn up by American Heritage Foundation in collaboration with Wall Street Journal.

The index of economic freedom is published annually. Estimation includes four principal criteria: interference of the state in economic life, efficiency of the authorities, observance of the law and openness of the markets. The economics that gain 80 or more scores are qualified as free ones, 70 to 79,9 - as "basically free", 60 to 69,9 scores - "moderately free". If the number of scores is under 60 the economy is considered "basically constrained", under 50 - a "closed" one.

According to the authors' survey, Georgia occupies the 16th position among European countries (the rating includes 43 European states all in all). The authors sate that Georgia's ratings went down on the indexes of corruption, the Government's expenditure, freedom of business and monetary freedom. At the same time, it was pointed out in the report that during the past two years Georgia achieved a positron among basically free countries though this year it slid into the category of "moderately free" countries, "Georgia Online" reports.

Armenia took the 39th place among 179 states in the index of economic freedom upon the results of 2011. The index of economic freedom made 68,8 reducing by 0,9 points. Armenia occupied the 19th position among 43 European states.

It is pointed out in the report that after a significant liberalization and economic reforms during the past ten years Armenia demonstrated a medium scale stability in the context of the recent global economic depression. However, the researchers observe that in spite of the country's good results in the major indexes of economic freedom, the basis of economic freedom is not supported by a powerful and independent judicial system and corruption is further undermining the resources for a more dynamic and stable economic development, "ArmInfo" reports.

Azerbaijan demonstrated the worst results among the countries of Southern Caucasus occupying the 91st position in the rating. Russia took the 144th plece, Turkey the 73rd and Iran the 171st place.