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South Africa’s long-term slide down the Economic Freedom of the World index - to number 94 out of 162 countries - shows that the government has overseen the regression of economic freedoms and prosperity, says the Free Market Foundation.
The Free Market Foundation remarked that the slide down the index, produced annually by Canada’s Frasier Institute, placed South Africa in the bottom half among the world’s freest and most prosperous economies.
South Africa is currently in a technical recession and proposed legal reforms such as a bill from the Economic Freedom Fighters to nationalise the South African Reserve Bank have investors on alert for any drastic changes in South Africa's finance sector.
The index uses measurable data such as size of government, legal structure and security of property rights, access to sound money, freedom to trade internationally and regulation of credit, labour and business to rank countries.
In the year 2000 South Africa ranked 46 on the same index globally. In a statement Free Market Foundation executive director Leon Louw said the slide signified a failure by government to build on its post-democratic achievements.
"If South Africa is to increase prosperity and reduce unemployment and poverty, it is essential that the financial sector be allowed to function as freely and efficiently as possible without stifling bureaucracy, and that true judicial independence be restored expeditiously," said Louw.
A statement from the Free Market Foundation said the slide down the index over the past 18 years meant that "South Africans now have less economic freedom than they had gained by 2000".
"Sliding down the index condemns countries to lower incomes, greater poverty, more inequality, reduced life expectancy, fewer political rights and liberties and bleak prospects for the quality of life," the statement said.
Hong Kong topped the index, followed by Singapore. Countries like New Zealand, Switzerland, Ireland, the United States, Georgia, Mauritius, the United Kingdom, and Australia with Canada also managed to stay in the top 10 of the index.
The index is based on data from 2016 (the most recent year of available data) and measures the economic freedom of 162 countries and territories for which data are available.
