Uzbekistan’s Index of Economic Freedom in 2022 drops by 9 points

Singapore (84.4 points), Switzerland (84.2 points) and Ireland (82.0 points) are in the top three. Cuba (29.5 points), Venezuela (24.8 points) and North Korea (3.0 points) occupied the last places in the ranking.

Uzbekistan’s position in the ranking

Uzbekistan ranked 117th out of 177 countries with 55.7 points. In the ranking, the final score of the country fell by 2.6 points. According to the index methodology, the economy of Uzbekistan remains mainly in the group of “non-free countries”.

Despite a steady positive trend (rising by +35 positions in 5 years), Uzbekistan fell by 9 points in the 2022 rankings.

The country’s prices for trade freedom (+20.2), investment (+30.0) and financial freedom (+20.0) and monetary freedom (+1.3) increased significantly. In other areas, the decline was observed, in particular, the worst indicator was the “judicial efficiency” (-37.7). The index of “property rights” also fell sharply – in this direction, Uzbekistan lost 26.2 points.

The ranking fell in 119 (67.2%) of the 177 countries. Among the CIS countries, only Moldova and Turkmenistan have improved their position.

The reason for the loss of position in the ranking

The decline in the rating was due to changes in the reporting methodology. In particular, the indicators and their calculation, as well as the international data sources used, now look different.

Since the World Bank stopped publishing the Doing Business report, the 2022 index has adopted other open data sources for subfactors that measure property rights, judicial efficiency, government integrity, business freedom and labor market freedom. In particular, the index now includes data from Freedom House and other sources in its assessments.

Also, the variability of public policy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant fluctuations in economic conditions in many countries around the world, including the level of economic freedom. It is unknown at this time whether these changes are permanent or temporary.

It should be recalled that in Freedom House’s Freedom on the Net 2021 report, which measures the level of Internet freedom, Uzbekistan scored 28 out of 100 points. The country was included in the list of countries that do not have free internet.