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Country Report Mauritius February 2011
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HTMLEconomic policy: Mauritius leads Africa in an economic freedom survey
According to the latest survey carried out by the Wall Street Journal and a US-based think-tank, the Heritage Foundation, Mauritius enjoys greater economic freedom than any other Sub-Saharan country. This annual survey measures and ranks 183 countries across ten specific freedoms and expresses these as an index, with 100 being the highest possible score. The highest-ranking country in the 2011 Index was Hong Kong, which scored 89.7. Mauritius was ranked 12th in the world, equal with Luxembourg, with a score of 76.2. This puts it near the top of the "mostly free" category and close to the category of just six countries with a score of 80 or above which are classified as "free". Mauritius ranked only slightly lower than the US, which scored 77.8, and higher than the UK, which scored 74.5. It performed well across most freedoms, with corruption being its weakest area.
| Index of Economic Freedom, 2011 | |||||||
| (score out of 100 unless otherwise indicated) | |||||||
| Mauritius | Botswana | Cape Verde | Namibia | South Africa | Sub-Saharan Africa | India | |
| Business freedom | 82.0 | 70.5 | 64.8 | 72.9 | 72.3 | 50.7 | 36.9 |
| Trade freedom | 88.0 | 75.2 | 67.6 | 86.4 | 77.2 | 67.4 | 64.2 |
| Fiscal freedom | 91.9 | 78.4 | 77.3 | 67.9 | 69.6 | 74.5 | 75.4 |
| Government spending | 80.0 | 51.5 | 71.0 | 74.8 | 77.5 | 71.9 | 77.8 |
| Monetary freedom | 76.1 | 70.9 | 79.2 | 70.9 | 71.9 | 69.6 | 65.1 |
| Investment freedom | 90.0 | 75.0 | 60.0 | 55.0 | 45.0 | 42.9 | 35.0 |
| Financial freedom | 70.0 | 70.0 | 60.0 | 40.0 | 60.0 | 41.1 | 40.0 |
| Property rights | 60.0 | 70.0 | 65.0 | 30.0 | 50.0 | 31.2 | 50.0 |
| Freedom from corruption | 54.0 | 56.0 | 51.0 | 45.0 | 47.0 | 29.1 | 34.0 |
| Labour freedom | 70.4 | 60.0 | 50.0 | 84.6 | 56.7 | 56.5 | 67.2 |
| Average | 76.2 | 68.8 | 64.6 | 62.7 | 62.7 | 53.5 | 54.6 |
| Rank | |||||||
| In worlda | 12 | 40 | 65 | 73 | 74 | – | 124 |
| In Sub-Saharan Africab | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | – | – |
| a Out of 183 countries. b Out of 46 countries. | |||||||
| Source: Heritage Foundation-Wall Street Journal, Index of Economic Freedom, 2011. | |||||||
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No other country in Sub-Saharan Africa was ranked "mostly free", although eight countries were described as "moderately free". All other countries in the region were described as either "mostly unfree" or "repressed". Mauritius scored 22.7 points above the Sub-Saharan average of 53.5 and 21.6 points above India's score of 54.6. Its ranking has improved steadily since 2004, when it was near the bottom of the "moderately free" category. This reflects the emphasis the government has placed on economic reforms and makes Mauritius one of the most investor-friendly countries in the world, despite its reputation for cronyism.
| Mauritius: Index of Economic Freedom, 2004-11 | |||||||||
| 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | ||
| Score (%) | 64.3 | 67.2 | 67.4 | 69.4 | 72.6 | 74.3 | 76.3 | 76.2 | |
| Rank | |||||||||
| World | 69 | 64 | 77 | 34 | 18 | 18 | 12 | 12 | |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 6 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Source: Heritage Foundation-Wall Street Journal, Index of Economic Freedom. | |||||||||
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