The Index of Economic Freedom stood at 67.2 percent in Slovakia, which is nearly 7 percent above the global average.
The authors of the index explained Slovakia’s improvement with slightly better evaluation of corruption, business freedom and the labour freedom. On the other hand, its evaluation of the monetary freedom and management of government spending worsened.
“Despite this improvement, the situation in Slovakia has been worsening in the long run, as in the past six years it dropped by 1.5 points,” the F. A. Hayek Foundation informed in a press release, as quoted by SITA. “We still have reserves in weak law enforcement and a high corruption rate in the health sector and public procurements.”
The biggest problem of the Slovak judiciary is, according to the authors, the intimidation of judges and an increase of unsolved court cases. The country also lags behind the global average in labour market and governmental expenses.
The index is published by the Heritage Foundation in cooperation with the Wall Street Journal. It surveys 178 countries around the world. The Slovak partner is the F. A. Hayek Foundation. The data for the evaluation, based on 10 parameters, come from 2013.
The 2014 index is topped by Hong Kong, followed by Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and Switzerland. Of the central European countries, Slovakia overtook only Hungary which placed 54. The Czech Republic was 24th, Austria 30th and Poland 42nd, SITA wrote.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
