South Africa has been ranked 75 out of 178 countries in the 2014 index of economic freedom‚ published by the Heritage Foundation this week.
South Africa's overall economic freedom score‚ at 62.5‚ was higher than both the global average and that of its peers in sub-Saharan Africa at 60.3 and 54.6 respectively‚ the South African Institute of Race Relations said.
The index tracks economic freedom globally and covers 186 countries that account for 99% of the world's population. Data for eight of the 186 was not available for this year's index.
The index ranks countries with scores above 80 as "free"‚ those with scores between 70 and 80 as "mostly free"‚ those with scores between 60 and 70 as "moderately free"‚ and those with scores below 60 as "mostly unfree" or "repressed". South Africa was therefore ranked as a moderately free economy.
The overall score is composed of 10 subcategories – property rights‚ freedom from corruption‚ fiscal freedom‚ government spending‚ business freedom‚ labour freedom‚ monetary freedom‚ trade freedom‚ investment freedom and financial freedom.
Of these‚ South Africa's score is higher than the global average in all but three categories – fiscal‚ labour and investment freedom. – I-Net Bridge