Albania is losing its economic freedom, mainly due to the legal system and property rights, the lack of independence of the judiciary, the costs of bureaucracy, and the lack of employment and dismissal regulations.

These are the conclusions drawn for Albania in the global map of economic freedom published by the Fraser Institute, based in Canada.

The 2024 edition (which processes data from 2022) rates Albania with 7.48 points out of 10, ranking it 38th in the world out of 165 jurisdictions around the world, up from 31st in the previous edition (2023 ), while in the 2022 report, it held the 30th place in the world.

The evaluation is based on the data of 5 main areas: Size of the Government 7.81 points; Legal System and Property Rights 5.43 points; Monetary stability 8.76 points; Freedom of international trade 8.53 points; Implementation of the rules 6.9 points.

Compared to the countries of the region, Albania performs better. Like Albania, global economic freedom also fell for the third year in a row, according to the annual World Economic Freedom report published by the Fraser Institute.

"After decades of slow but steady growth, global economic freedom peaked in 2019 but has fallen in each of the three years since, which has not happened since we began measuring economic freedom more than 25 years ago," said Matthew Mitchell, Senior Fellow in the Centre for Economic Freedom at the Fraser Institute and a contributor to the report.

Economic freedom - the degree to which individuals are allowed to make their own economic decisions about what to buy, where to work, and whether to start a business—is essential to well-being. Economic freedom measures openness to trade, tax and regulatory burden, government spending, and the stability of a country's money.

In 2022 (the latest year of data available), Hong Kong was the most economically free jurisdiction in the world (although its score has fallen in recent years), followed by Singapore, Switzerland, New Zealand, and the United States.

Other top country rankings include Canada (8), Japan (11), United Kingdom (12), Germany (16), Taiwan (19), Korea (32), France (36), Mexico (65), India (84), Brazil (85), China (104) and Russia (119).

The 10 countries with the lowest freedom are Yemen (156), Libya (157), Iran (158), Argentina (159), Myanmar (160), Algeria (161), Syria (162), Sudan (163), Zimbabwe (164) and Venezuela (165). People living in countries with high levels of economic freedom enjoy greater prosperity, more political and civil liberties, and longer lives.

"Where people are free to pursue their opportunities and make their own economic choices, they lead more prosperous, happier, and healthier lives," Mitchell said.