The year 2023 is placed under the sign of economic recovery in Algeria. The public authorities are multiplying declarations of good intentions and affirming their desire to open up to the international market in order to diversify revenues. However, Algeria ranks very low on economic freedom. It lost 6 places compared to the previous year, according to the ranking of the American think tank Heritage Foundation. Algeria is ranked 168th out of 176 countries surveyed. This classification concerns the index of economic freedom.
In this ranking, Algeria is between Iran and Bolivia with an overall score of 43.2 . A score that reveals that the country is one of those where economic freedom is the most “stifled” or “repressed”. The American think tank Heritage Foundation identifies 5 categories of savings in its ranking: the first is considered the freest, with a score between 80 and 100 points; the second and third categories, mostly free and moderately free, have 70 to 79.9 and 60 to 69.99 points respectively.
Algeria is thus classified in the last category, between Haiti, ranked in 149th place, and North Korea, in 176th and last position. This report explains that Algeria’s score is 2.6 points lower than last year.
Among the 17 countries in the Middle East and North Africa region, Algeria is ranked 15th and its overall score remains below regional and global averages. For the American think tank , “the foundations of economic freedom are neither well established nor strongly protected. The vulnerability of the justice system to political interference and corruption undermines sustainable economic development . Despite some progress, the government still needs to improve fiscal governance. Structural reforms aimed at diversifying the economic base have had only marginal success” 1 .
Regarding the countries of North Africa, Morocco comes in 97th place worldwide. It is followed by Tunisia , in 132nd place, and Egypt, in 151st place. While official data on Mauritania and Libya were not included in the report.
