Continuing with tradition (2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, etc), let’s look at the Fraser Institute’s just-released Economic Freedom of the World.

We’ll start with the world’s freest economy. Even though its score has dropped in recent years, Hong Kong is still holding on to first place. Switzerland jumped from #4 last year to #2 this year, while the United States holds steady at #5.

European countries are well represented in the top-20, along with a handful of nations from the Pacific Rim. And don’t forget Mauritius.

What about the worst nations?

I’ll start with the caveat that some of the world’s more repressive nations – specifically North Korea and Cuba – are not included because quality data is not available.

Of the countries that are measured, it is no surprise to see that Venezuela remains in last place and Zimbabwe holds on to its silver medal for statist policy.

This map provides a global view of economic liberty.

Africa is the most-repressed continent, with plenty of bad news as well in Asia and South America.

Let’s now look at the chart from the report showing why economic freedom matters.

Simply stated, there’s a strong relationship between economic liberty and per-capita GDP. Indeed, countries ranked as “most economically free” have nearly seven times as much per-capita economic output as nations ranked as “least economically free.”

Let’s wrap up today’s column by looking at what’s happened in Argentina.

Keep in mind that this edition of Economic Freedom of the World looks at 2024 data (Milei’s first year in office), so it’s a lagging indicator.

That being said, we can make some important observations, starting with the bad news.

• Argentina remains in the “least economically free” category.

Everything else, however, is good news.

• Argentina climbed out of the bottom 10, rising from #159 to #151 (out of 165).
• Argentina’s score increased from 4.35 to 4.86 (in the 98th-percentile for single-year improvements).
• Argentina’s trade score jumped by nearly two points, from 3.62 to 5.55.

Today’s final visual is the history of overall economic freedom in Argentina.

There was terrible policy in the 1970s, followed by a big rebound in he 1990s, and then a long decline this century.

The final year shows a Milei-instigated bump.

I’m already looking forward to next year’s edition of Economic Freedom of the World since that data will show the two-year impact of Milei’s pro-market reforms.

We’ll almost certainly see an even bigger improvement as Milei continues with his goal of ultimately making Argentina the world’s freest economy.

P.S. You can also read about Argentina’s improvement as measured by the Index of Economic Freedom and the Hayek Socialism Index.