The opening of markets and the protection of private property have helped Cape Verde move up on the 2008 edition of the Economic Freedom Index, coming closer to the world’s freest economies - a group that counts Portugal as its only Portuguese-language country. The information was given to A Semana Online by Minister of the Economy, Growth and Competitiveness José Brito, and may be consulted on the site www.heritage.org.

The text accompanying the list elaborated by the United States-based Heritage Foundation says that the trend among the world’s Portuguese-language countries - with the exception of São Tomé and Príncipe and East Timor - is one of increased stability with regards to last year. Angola, despite its improved performance, still belongs to the group of countries whose economies are considered “not free.”

The Cape Verdean economy showed a figure of 58.4%, making it the 88th freest economy among 157 that were analyzed, having gained 1.3 percentage points in relation to 2007 thanks to “the improved investment climate and a reduction in corruption,” writes the Heritage Foundation.

“Cape Verde scores well in monetary freedom, investment freedom, and especially property rights, with a score that is 24 percentage points higher than average. Inflation is low, although the government does subsidize some staples. Property rights are very well secured by the rule of law in comparison to the situation in neighboring countries,” says the report.

The Heritage Foundation does warn about the “serious challenges” faced by the Cape Verdean economy, which is dominated by the service sector, in terms of revenues, despite the fact that agriculture, fishing and industry employ most of the economically active population.

“Trade freedom and the overall size of government taxation and expenditure are the main problems, and heavy business regulations are a barrier to investment and entrepreneurship. Trade is hindered by a high average tariff rate and significant non-tariff barriers,” says the report.

Cape Verde comes in ninth among sub-Saharan African countries, and even manages to score higher than Brazil (55.9%), which lost a number of percentage points, falling to 101st position due to “corruption” and “labor freedom.”

Mozambique also managed to come in ahead of Brazil, in 96th place, despite its modest growth, a result of “the absence of significant reforms.”

Source: A Semana