Colombia ranks 45th among 175 nations evaluated in the 2010 Index of Economic Freedom.
The Andean nation improved 2.5 points from last year in this year’s Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom. With a score of 68.0 Colombia ranks 7th in South American and the Caribbean. However, the country remains in the category of “moderately free” countries.
The Heritage Foundation’s Index is created from the average of 10 aspects of economic freedom including business, trade, and fiscal freedom, as well as freedom of corruption, and labor freedom.
In the category of business freedom, Colombia has shown a small increase for a score of 86.1 but they have dropped one point in the category of freedom of corruption to receive a score of 37.0.
According to the Heritage Foundation, “Further growth in economic freedom in Colombia will require deeper institutional reforms that include better protection of property rights and a stronger judicial system. Corruption remains considerable in many sectors of the economy, and the relatively high marginal tax rates encourage tax evasion.”
The Heritage Foundation also states that the Colombian economy expanded an average of 4% annually over the last 5 years.