Economy Minister: Georgia ahead of “all EU candidate countries” in Index of Economic Freedom

Georgia has moved up three positions in the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom and ranks 32nd among 184 countries, as well as 19th among European states, surpassing “all countries” with the candidate status for European Union membership, Economy Minister Levan Davitashvili said on Thursday.

Georgia is one of the leaders in terms of trade and financial freedom, [and] our country ranks second in the world. This indicates that there is a free environment in terms of doing business in Georgia, which promotes economic progress”, Davitashvili said.

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He added the Government's policy was also aimed at “ensuring economic growth, stability and predictability in the country”.

It is important to create an appropriate environment, and the Government is trying to improve the conditions in all directions in order to make Georgia even more attractive and maintain the high economic growth that we had in previous years”, he said.

The Ministry of Economy said Georgia's overall score of 68.4 was higher than the average score of both the wider region (67.2 points) and the world (58.6 points).