For over a decade, The Wall Street Journal and The Heritage Foundation, Washington's preeminent think tank, have tracked the march of economic freedom around the world with the influential Index of Economic Freedom. Since 1995, the Index has brought Adam Smith's theories about liberty, prosperity and economic freedom to life by creating 10 benchmarks that gauge the economic success of 184 countries around the world. With its user-friendly format, readers can see how 18th century theories on prosperity and economic freedom are realities in the 21st century. The Index covers 10 freedoms–from property rights to entrepreneurship.
The latest Index of Economic Freedom ranks Finland 17th among 184 economies included in the annual index. Finland's economy is still pretty free, but mainly considerable deterioration in the management of government spending has caused the drop in ranking.
The report concludes that "the strong competitiveness of Finland’s economy is built on openness and transparency. The quality of the legal framework is among the world’s highest, providing effective protection of property rights. The rule of law is well maintained, and a strong tradition of minimum tolerance for corruption continues. Although public debt remains under control, respect for the principle of limited government has been seriously undercut by heavy public spending that amounts to more than half of total domestic output."
Positively, Finnish regulatory environment encourages entrepreneurial activity and innovation, sustaining a high degree of overall competitiveness.
[heritage.org]
No comments:
Post a Comment