Muscat: The Sultanate of Oman advanced 39 places in the 2024 Economic Freedom Index issued by the Heritage Foundation. Oman now occupies 56th position among world countries, compared to 95th place in 2023.
The index, which covers 184 countries, portrays 12 parallel sub-indexes grouped into four categories: 1. The rule of law; 2. Government size; 3. Regulatory efficiency; and 4. Open markets.
The Economic Freedom Index documents the positive relationship between economic freedom and a range of social and economic goals. Economic freedom is closely linked to concepts of healthier societies, a cleaner environment, increased per capita wealth, human development, democracy and poverty eradication.
Oman scored about 62.9 out of 100, thus meriting a ‘somewhat free’ rating this year (2024), compared to ‘mostly not free’ rating last year (2023). Oman’s performance exceeded the global and regional average.
It should be noted that a positive rating places a country into one of 5 upscale groups every time it makes pr
ogress towards the 100 spot ‘most free economy’.
Oman earned its largest outstanding progress in the Financial Health Index, in which its score rose from 12.1 in 2023 to 73.8 (out of 100) in 2024. This progress is credited to the government’s efforts to proportionately cut down ‘Public-debt ratio to GDP’, in addition to the country’s ability to post fiscal surplus in the budget.
Oman also achieved high results in other indices, including the Tax Burden Index, the Monetary Freedom Index and the Business Freedom Index. The abovementioned indices ratings were quoted as follows:
-Oman merited a score of 97.6 out of 100 points in the Tax Burden Index (as a percentage to GDP), which reflects marginal tax rates on both personal and corporate income and the general level of taxes, including direct and indirect taxes charged at all levels of government.
-It obtained a score of 80.3 out of 100 in the Monetary Freedom Index, which analyses the extent to which prices are stable and the rate of microeconomic intervent
ion. In this index,
-It achieved a score of 76.2 out of 100 in the Business Freedom Index, which measures the impact of tariffs and non-tariff barriers on imports and exports of goods and services in the country and abroad.
Acting in cooperation with the National Programme for Investment and Export Development (Nazdaher) and other departments concerned, the National Competitiveness Office is embarked on devising an action plan to help realize the objectives of Oman Vision 2040, notably with the aims of placing Oman among the top 40 countries in the world.
Source: Oman News Agency