The countrys latest economic freedom score stood at 50.9, making the economy the 156th freest out of 180 countries. Its overall score has increased by 0.4 point, with modest improvements in monetary freedom, labor freedom and government integrity offsetting lower scores for the fiscal health, government spending and judicial effectiveness indicators.
Iran is ranked 13th among 14 countries in the Middle East and North Africa region, and its overall score is below the regional and world averages, the report read.
Hong Kong and Singapore received first and second places in the free category, with the United States coming in at 18th place in the mostly free category. China took the 110th place in the mostly unfree category and North Korea came in last among all countries.
The yearly Index of Economic Freedom was launched in 1995 by the Heritage Foundation and American business-focused daily newspaper The Wall Street Journal, and uses four main categoriesrule of law, government size, regulatory efficiency and open marketsto calculate economic freedom.
Twelve other categories are also used in the evaluation: property rights, judicial effectiveness, government integrity, tax burden, government spending, fiscal health, business freedom, labor freedom, monetary freedom, trade freedom, investment freedom and financial freedom.
The scores received by countries in these categories are averaged to create an overall score.
Irans standing in the Heritage Foundations 2017 report stood at 155 out of 186 countries.
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