In terms of economic freedom, the Heritage Foundation indicates that with a world rank of 77/180, South Africa is fourth in the African region. The country’s overall economic freedom score improved by 0.7 points in 2017.
General Manager for Research for Brand South Africa, Petrus de Kock, said the index provided some insight into dimensions of the country’s economic environment as Pretoria continues to grapple with historical challenges, and the need to spur on entrepreneurship and innovation.
“Notable improvements for South Africa in 2018 include the improvement in the area of investment freedom, and judicial effectiveness.
“The latter is significant coming in a year where the administration of President Cyril Ramaphosa made investment a key focal area of its work,” de Kock said.
According to the foundation, South Africa’s improvement in the rankings comes as a result of advancement in the areas of property rights which is up from 67.6 in 2017 to 67.7 for 2018; judicial effectiveness increased from 59.7 in 2017 to 65.9; fiscal health sees an improvement of +4.6 from 70.7 in 2017; business freedom advanced by +3.1 points from 62.0 in 2017; labour freedom improved by +1.2 in 2018 from 58.9 in 2017; and investment freedom significantly improved by +10.0 from 40.0 in 2017.
Notable is that South Africa ranks higher than two European nations: Italy (79/180) and Greece (115/180).
Released annually by the conservative Heritage Foundation, the Index of Economic Freedom provides insight into the extent to which governments enable an open and unrestricted economic environment for citizens and businesses to operate in.