Ukraine has become more economically unfree

The American research institute «Heritage Foundation» published the annual Index of Economic Freedom 2022. Ukraine took 130th place in it with a score of 54.1 points out of a possible 100. We worsened our performance last year, when we had 56.2 points and 127th place.

The world average indicator of economic freedom is 60 points. Here are some examples for comparison: Estonia – 7 (80 points), Lithuania – 17 (75.8 points), Latvia – 18 (74.8), Georgia – 26 (71.8), Poland – 39 (68.7) , Moldova – 78 (61.3), Russia – 113 (56.1), Belarus – 135 (53.0). This year, Ukraine got rid of the title of “the least economically free country in Europe”, but this is only because Belarus fell sharply. So there is no reason to rejoice.

Why is this important?

The higher the economic freedom, the faster the country grows. A clear correlation has been established between economic freedom and the quality of state administration, the level of human development, the quality of the environment, the innovativeness of the economy, and the rate of improvement of social standards.

However, in the last 30 years, the Ukrainian authorities have not understood that economic freedom is the key to prosperity, well-being and security of the state. Ukraine’s 130th place next to totalitarian, sovkov Belarus is a verdict on the current economic policy, which in Ukraine was dubbed “hetmanship” after the name of the main ideologist.

The Ukrainian authorities say that they want to «end the era of poverty». Well, the best way to do that is through liberal reforms. In the countries included in the «mostly free» and “free” groups, only 10% of the population is in the poverty zone, and among the «mostly unfree» (such as Ukraine) every third person is poor.

So far, in the 30 years of independence, there has not been a single government in Ukraine that proposed and implemented a full-fledged, systematic program for Ukraine’s entry into the groups of economically free countries. However, whoever does it first will go down in history. And not only Ukrainian.