Bahrain tops Arab nations in Economic Freedom Index

Bahrain topped Arab countries in a recent report on Economic Freedom Index. The international index, which is annually issued by Fraser Institute in Canada, is based on five key components that focus on government spending, the judicial system, the protection of intellectual property rights, monetary policy, free trade, and government business procedures.

Bahrain was placed on the 30th spot internationally among 162 countries and shared the same position with Czech and Spain. As for Arab countries, Bahrain was first and was followed by the UAE, which got the 37th place internationally. As for the international first three positions, Hong Kong, Singapore, and New Zealand came first, second and third, respectively.

They were followed by Switzerland in the fourth position, Ireland in the fifth, the US in the sixth, Georgia in the seventh, Mauritius in the eighth, the United Kingdom in the ninth and Australia in the tenth place. This comes as the Kingdom has been putting more efforts to boost the economy and strengthen it by attracting foreign investments.

The Economic Development Board (EDB) recently announced that it successfully attracted a record high foreign investments in the first nine months of 2018, reflecting the interest of foreign investors in Bahrain as the perfect gateway to the GCC economy, which is worth USD1.5 trillion.

The investments attracted by EDB grew by 138 percent between January and September this year, in comparison with the same period in 2017. The board revealed that it successfully attracted more than 70 corporates to invest around USD733 million in Bahrain this year.