Ukraine least free economy in Europe, survey says

Ukraine slightly improved its score on the Heritage
Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom but still remained the least free
country in Europe, according to this year’s survey published on Feb. 2.
Globally, Ukraine ranked 150th out of 180 total countries in economic freedom,
improving 3.8 points owing to gains in 8 out of 12 indicators. Declines
occurred in property rights, government integrity and trade freedom.

Ukraine ranked 83rd out of 167 on the annual Democracy
Index produced by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Ukraine’s overall score
slightly declined to 5.69 from 5.70 last year. Out of five criteria, Ukraine
ranked best in political participation and worst in functioning government.

Zenon Zawada: These statistics merely confirm the widely held view that the
Poroshenko administration is resisting reforms to make Ukraine a better place
to do business. This is particularly unfortunate when a fast pace of structural
reforms are necessary to offset the economic damage incurred by Russia’s
military aggression. Moreover, this resistance is hurting Ukraine’s transition
to a rule of law democracy. It’s also disturbing to see declines in Ukraine’s
trade freedom following the creation of free trade areas with the EU (2014) and
Canada (2017).