President Uhuru Kenyatta during the opening of the Huduma Centre in
Mombasa on August 27, 2014. Kenya has moved up 10 positions in the
ranking of countries whose trade policies and governance structures are
supportive of economic freedom. PHOTO | PSCU
Kenya has moved up 10 positions in the ranking of countries
whose trade policies and governance structures are supportive of
economic freedom.
The Economic Freedom of the World
annual report released last week shows that the country rose from last
year’s position 88 to 77 in the 2014 survey.
Though Kenya achieved a better ranking than last year, it still trails regional counterparts Rwanda and Uganda.
Though Kenya achieved a better ranking than last year, it still trails regional counterparts Rwanda and Uganda.
“The
cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary
exchange, freedom to enter markets and compete, and security of the
person and privately owned property,” the report says.
Rwanda topped in the region once again, at position 29, an improvement from position 36 in 2013.
Uganda
improved from 64 to 57 while Burundi maintained its position 145 from
the previous year. A total of 152 countries were surveyed.
The report says there exists a strong correlation between a country’s economic freedom score and its economic growth.
DEGREE OF ECONOMIC FREEDOM
The
index is a summary that measures the degree of economic freedom in five
broad areas including the size of government, legal structures, access
to sound money, freedom to trade internationally and regulation of
credit, labour and business.
It assesses the degree to which a country’s policies and institutions are supportive of economic freedom.
“Economic
freedom has been shown to promote prosperity and other positive
outcomes in developed and developing societies. This vindicates calls
for unshackling of markets from the tight clutches of government
control,” Eastern Africa Policy Centre Programmes director Alex Njeru
told the Nation yesterday.
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