The Heritage Foundation has released the Index of Economic Freedom for 2018. In this 24th edition of the international index, Mauritius is classified as the 21st freest economy out of 128 countries worldwide, and comes 1st among the 47 countries of the Sub-Saharan Africa region.

With an overall score of 75.1, Mauritius has improved by 0.4 points over last year, with improvements in the areas of government integrity and property rights indicators. The report lauds Mauritius for its efficient and transparent regulatory regime, competitive tax rates, banking practices and labour code, which support economic development and growth in the private sector respectively. It also highlights the country’s sound legal framework, which protects property rights. The notable successes mentioned for the country include open markets, monetary stability and business freedom.

Mauritius maintains its first position in Sub-Saharan Africa and is the only country out of the 47 graded countries of the region to be rated as “mostly free", while most of the other countries of the region have been grated as “mostly unfree", and over half of the world’s “repressed" countries (12 out of 21) are from that region.

Launched in 1995, the Index of Economic Freedom analyses the political and economic development of countries in five regional categories, namely America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East/North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, based on both qualitative and quantitative factors.