Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Bahrain continues to have the highest level of economic freedom among all other Arab nations, says the Economic Freedom of the Arab World 2011 Annual Report, published by the leading Canadian public policy think tank, the Fraser Institute.
Published in partnership with the International Research Institute of Oman and the Cairo office of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty, the report puts Bahrain ahead of Lebanon in second place and Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates in joint third spot.
“The link between economic freedom and prosperity is undeniable,” said Fred McMahon, Fraser Institute vice-president for international policy research. “The countries that score highly in terms of economic freedom also offer their people the best quality of life.”
The report compares and ranks Arab nations in five areas of economic freedom, namely size of government, including its expenditures, taxes and enterprises, commercial and economic law and security of property rights, access to sound money, freedom to trade internationally and the regulation of credit, labour and business.
The encouraging news from the Economic Freedom Report came as His Royal Highnes Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa opened the Invest in Bahrain 2011 Forum in Manama.
