Saturday 27 / July / 2024
Muscat: The Sultanate of Oman rose 39 places in the 2024 Economic Freedom Index issued by the Heritage Foundation, ranking 56th in the world compared to its 95th rank in 2023.
The index covers 184 economies to measure the level of economic freedom based on 12 sub-indices distributed across four pillars: the rule of law, size of government, regulatory efficiency, and open markets.
The Economic Freedom Index documents the positive relationship between economic freedom and a range of social and economic goals, and economic freedom is closely linked to healthier societies, a cleaner environment, increased per capita wealth, human development, democracy, and the eradication of poverty.
The Sultanate of Oman’s score advanced to about 62.9 out of 100, classifying its economy to “somewhat free” instead of “mostly not free” last year, as it exceeded the global and regional average, noting that the classification includes 5 groups. The more advanced it is towards 100, the freer its economy.
Oman recorded the largest noticeable progress in the financial health index, as its score rose from 12.1 in 2023 to 73.8 out of 100 this year. This progress is attributed to clear reasons, the most important of which is the decline in the proportion of public debt to gross domestic product and the recording of a surplus in the public financial budget.
It also achieved high results in other indicators, most notably the tax burden index, which reflects marginal tax rates on both personal and corporate income and the general level of taxes (including direct and indirect taxes imposed by all levels of government) as a percentage of GDP, where it obtained a score of 97.6 out of 100, followed by the Monetary Freedom Index, which analyses the extent of price stability and the extent of microeconomic intervention, with a score of 80.3 out of 100, then the trade Freedom Index, which measures the extent of the impact of tariffs and non-tariff barriers on imports and exports of goods and services inside and outside the country. Oman achieved a score of 76.2 out of 100.
The Sultanate, represented by the National Competitiveness Office, in cooperation with the National Programme for Investment and Export Development (Nazhar), seeks to achieve a high rank in the index by developing an action plan in partnership with other concerned parties to reach the goal of Oman Vision 2040 so that the Sultanate is among the top 40 countries in the world.
It is noteworthy that the National Competitiveness Office is working to follow up and improve a number of international indicators, especially those included in the vision document, in coordination with the relevant authorities. In an effort to achieve advanced competitive ranks in international indicators, which contributes to raising the performance of the Sultanate of Oman in the Gulf, regionally and globally.
