Couple of weeks ago, Ireland's Open Republic Institute and Canada's Fraser Institute published annual Economic Freedom of the World Index - the most comprehensive and academically credible index of institutional quality of economic environments around the world. Unlike other similar indices, EFW uses latest comprable available data for all countries in the index and undertakes detailed assessment of the largest number of criteria in arriving at its final rankings.
The results for Ireland are not good. As well as for Europe overall.
No EU countries in top 5 ranks, only one EU country in top 10 and no Euro area country in top 10. In top 20 ranked countries group, there are only 3 Euro area core EU countries, with 3 more Central and Eastern European states. Ireland ranks only 25th in the world - an extremely poor performance, given that last year we were ranked 11th and in 2009 index we were ranked 9th.
Overall, chart below shows historical trend for Ireland:
We are now ranked back in the position that is consistent with economic environment-determining institutions quality that is worse than the entire 1980s!
Charts below summarize the sources of our underperformance:
The data above refers to performance parameters for 2009. Since then, Irish economic conditions and policies have deteriorated substantially so we can expect further downgrades in the index.
No EU countries in top 5 ranks, only one EU country in top 10 and no Euro area country in top 10. In top 20 ranked countries group, there are only 3 Euro area core EU countries, with 3 more Central and Eastern European states. Ireland ranks only 25th in the world - an extremely poor performance, given that last year we were ranked 11th and in 2009 index we were ranked 9th.
Overall, chart below shows historical trend for Ireland:
We are now ranked back in the position that is consistent with economic environment-determining institutions quality that is worse than the entire 1980s!
Charts below summarize the sources of our underperformance:
The data above refers to performance parameters for 2009. Since then, Irish economic conditions and policies have deteriorated substantially so we can expect further downgrades in the index.
