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Armenia ranked 54th with 67 scores in the 2016 Index of Economic Freedom by Heritage Foundation, an American think tank.

Neighbouring Georgia ranked 23, Turkey took 79th spot, Azerbaijan – 91st and Iran ranked 171. As for the CIS countries, Kazakhstan ranked 68, Kyrgyzstan – 96, Moldova – 117, Tajikistan – 149, Russia – 153, Belarus – 157. Ukraine (162), Uzbekistan (166) and Turkmenistan (174) are the worst performers in the CIS, according to the index.

Therefore, Armenia is leading among the CIS countries with its level of economic freedom.

In total, the best performers in the index are Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland and Australia.
As Azerbaijan regards, the experts of the foundation point out  that its strong economic growth has been driven mainly by development of the energy sector. Corruption is widespread in the country. The corrupt and inefficient judiciary is largely subservient to the president and ruling party. Political opponents, journalists, and civil society activists arrested or sentenced during 2014 reported a variety of due process violations. The state seizes property at will, and options for recourse are extremely limited for ordinary citizens.

According to the report, the enforcement of the labour code remains uneven. A sharp currency devaluation in 2015 related to falling global oil prices sparked inflation in the country.

The Heritage Foundation defines economic freedom as ‘the fundamental right of every human to control his or her own labour and property,’ when ‘governments allow labour, capital, and goods to move freely, and refrain from coercion or constraint of liberty beyond the extent necessary to protect and maintain liberty itself.’ Economic freedom is measured based on 10 quantitative and qualitative factors of economic freedom: property rights, freedom from corruption, fiscal freedom, government spending, business freedom, labour freedom, monetary freedom, trade freedom, investment freedom and financial freedom.

Each of the ten economic freedoms within these categories is graded on a scale of 0 to 100. The Foundation has been conducting an analysis of economic freedom since 1995. 

In the previous edition of the report, the 2015 Index of Economic Freedom, Armenia ranked 52nd scoring 67.1 points, again topping the list of the CIS countries. Meanwhile Azerbaijan took the 85th spot (61 points).