Azernews.Az

BAKU – Azerbaijan ranks 93rd on economic freedoms, Canada's leading public policy think-tank said Monday.

The country received 6.36 points in the Fraser Institute’s rankings of 141 nations and jurisdictions, four points below the previous rating.

On a scale of 1 to 10, neighboring Georgia ranks 23rd, while Armenia 50th, Turkey 57th, Kazakhstan 58th, Kyrgyzstan 62nd, Russia 84th, Moldova 87th, Iran 107th, and Ukraine 127th, according to the Economic Freedom of the World: 2010 Annual Report.

Hong Kong again leads the rankings, followed by stalwarts Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland, and Chile.

Zimbabwe maintains the lowest level of economic freedom. Myanmar, Angola, and Venezuela round out the bottom four nations.

In the wake of the global recession, the average level of economic freedom around the world dropped for the first time in decades, the study found.

The study also said people living in countries with high levels of economic freedom enjoy higher levels of prosperity, greater individual freedoms, and longer life spans.

It also revealed that poor people in economically unfree nations earn only $910 per year, compared to $8,400 made by those in prosperous countries.

The average life span is 59 years in unfree countries, compared to 79 reported in free countries.

The report also examines the effect of economic freedom on rates of homicide in Venezuela, Colombia, South Africa, Latvia, and Lithuania. The results suggest that increases in economic freedom lead to decreases in homicides.

The annual peer-reviewed economic freedom report uses 42 different measures to create an index ranking 141 countries around the world based on policies that encourage economic freedom. The cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete, and security of private property. Economic freedom is measured in five different 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 of the World measures the degree to which the policies and institutions of countries are supportive of economic freedom. The annual report is published in conjunction with the Economic Freedom Network, a group of independent research and educational institutes in 80 countries worldwide.