(Business in Cameroon) - The American think tank Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal have just published the 2016 ranking of the World Economic Freedom Index, which measures since 1995 the economic freedom of countries, based on criteria such as property rights protection, the size of the State, budget and monetary policy and the fight against corruption.
Out of this ranking of 178 countries, Cameroon occupies the 29th spot in Africa and 130th worldwide. Presented as the economic engine of the CEMAC area, Cameroon is overtaken by Gabon, 15th in African and 105th freest economy globally.
Still within CEMAC, Chad, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea and the Republic of Congo are among the six least free economies of the African continent, just after Eritrea and Zimbabwe, occupying the last two spots of this ranking at the African level.
According to Heritage Foundation and Wall Street, the freest economies in Africa for 2016 are those of Mauritius, Botswana and Cape Verde. Notable fact: in this ranking, Mauritius is even ahead of industrialised countries such as Germany and Japan.