According to the latest edition of the Economic Freedom Index, the Moroccan economy remains the freest in North Africa, although the Kingdom has lost six places in the ranking compared to last year. Although its economy has remained «moderately free», Morocco has lost six places in the Index of Economic Freedom in its 2021 edition published this week by the Heritage Foundation, an American think tank and lobby based in Washington, and the Wall Street Journal. Measuring «the impact of freedom and free markets» in 186 countries, the index ranks the Kingdom 81st, behind Montenegro and ahead of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Across North Africa, it ranks first ahead of Tunisia (119th), Mauritania (128th), Egypt (130th) and Algeria (162nd). The Kingdom is also 6th in Africa, behind Mauritius (13th), Rwanda (47th), Botswana (51st), the Seychelles (60th) and Cape Verde (77th). In the MENA region, the Kingdom is in the 9th position, preceded by the United Arab Emirates (14th), Israel (26th) and Qatar (31st), which are part of the free majority economies, Bahrain (40th), Saudi Arabia (63rd), Jordan (69th), the Sultanate of Oman (71st) and Kuwait (74th). Globally, Singapore comes first ahead of New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland and Ireland. Zimbabwe (174th), Sudan, Cuba, Venezuela and North Korea (178th) respectively, are at the bottom of the ranking. Corruption would still hinder economic freedom in Morocco Morocco has collected 63.3 points this year, an increase of 0.4 point compared to the 2019 edition. Last year, Morocco was ranked 75th in the world, with 62.9 points. Morocco's overall score was impacted by «a decline in trade freedom offset by improvements in monetary freedom and other scores», the report, which mainly relies on 12 sub-indicators in four categories, read. Indeed, while Morocco improves its performance in terms of «the rule of law» and «regulatory efficiency», it is still consideref as lagging behind when it comes to freedom of investment and financial freedom. However, the Kingdom's scores for commercial freedom and tax burden are falling. «Morocco's economy remained moderately free this year. Three Index areas in particular are holding back greater economic freedom. The first is corruption, which undermines government integrity». The same source also mentions the judicial system, which, according to it, must be «strengthened to make it more reliable and transparent would increase the effectiveness of the fight against official malfeasance. Third, addressing labor market rigidities would improve productivity».
