Bahrain tops Mideast in world list on free economies

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FREE ECONOMY: Bahrain, with its capital Manama pictured here, came top in the Middle East in the latest Index of Economic Freedom. (Getty Images)

Bahrain has been ranked as the 16th most free economy in the world - top in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region - in the annual Index of Economic Freedom.

Bahrain was the only Middle East country to be ranked in the top 20 and has been ranked No.1 in the GCC for 15 years, since the launch of the Index, published by the Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal.

Bahrain’s ranking of 16th was an improvement on its 2008 ranking of 19th.

With an average total score of 74.8 percent, Bahrain’s position in the top 20 puts it alongside Switzerland (9th), UK (10th) and Japan (19th) and ahead of Germany (25th), Spain (29th) and France (64th).

The Index of Economic Freedom 2009 ranked 179 countries across 10 areas of economic freedom - business freedom, trade freedom, fiscal freedom, government size, monetary freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom, property rights, freedom from corruption and labour freedom. An overall average was then calculated from these scores.

Bahrain again scored highly in the business freedom, trade freedom and fiscal freedom categories and made a significant improvement in the area of labour freedom.

The Gulf state scored well above the global average in nine out of 10 areas measured and equal to the average in the 10th.

Sheikh Mohammed Bin Essa al-Khalifa, chief executive of the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB), said: “Economic freedom is more important than ever for businesses during these difficult times. And for Bahrain it supports growth and contributes to long term stability.

"The results of this year’s Index further demonstrate Bahrain’s status as a location from which international companies can access markets across the Gulf.”

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