Morocco Tops African Countries in 2025 Economic Freedom Index

Rabat – Morocco has secured the top rank of North African countries’ list in the 2025 economic freedom index, according to the Index of Economic Freedom.

On a global level, the North African country secured the 86 spot with a score of 60.3, while in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region, Morocco’s economy ranked 7 out of 14 countries, ahead of Kuwait and following Saudi Arabia.

The report noted that the country’s score improved by 3.5 points from last year.

Morocco’s economy is considered “moderately free” according to the 2025 Index.

Published by the Heritage Institute, the report on the economic freedom index takes several factors into account to release the overall score.

For these, Morocco has proven itself as well institutionalized in terms of the regulatory environment, with both business freedom (68.9) and monetary freedom (74.7) above the world average, while labor freedom (48.5) is below the world average.

Meanwhile, the open markets components have recorded higher scores, recording 67.2 for trade freedom, and 75 for both investment freedom and financial freedom.

The report also indicates that the “trade-weighted average tariff rate is 13.9 percent,” adding that investors, both foreign and domestic, generally enjoy equal treatment under Morocco’s law.

Additionally, the North African country’s “competitive financial sector continues to grow and offers a range of financing options. The stock exchange does not limit foreign participation.”

This commendable progress in elevating its economic freedom is attributed to Morocco’s ongoing reforms encouraging greater private-sector dynamism, which in turn improved competitiveness and productive base diversification in the market.

It also signaled Morocco’s monetary stability has been maintained with relatively modest inflation.

While the report pointed to obvious improvements in the country’s economic freedom index, it however mentioned that “some challenges will require deeper institutional reforms.”

It particularly argued that although “procedures for setting up and registering private enterprises are more streamlined, licensing requirements are still relatively costly.”

The report also raised concerns over Morocco’s labor market rigidity, indicating that it “still discourages dynamic job growth,” while there exists a marginalization of much of the labor force in the informal sector.

The Index of Economic Freedom evaluates the economic policies and conditions of 184 countries for the period of July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024.

It is based on 12 indicators grouped into four main pillars, namely Rule of Law (property rights, government integrity, judicial effectiveness), Government Size (government spending, tax burden, fiscal health), Regulatory Efficiency (business freedom, labor freedom, monetary freedom), Open Markets (trade freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom).

Each indicator is scored on a scale from 0 to 100, with the average of all 12 forming the country’s final score.

The report then classifies countries into five categories: Free (80 to 100 points), Mostly Free (70 to 79.9 points), Moderately Free (60 to 69.9 points), Mostly Unfree (50 to 59.9 points), and Economically Repressed (0 to 49.9 points).

In the North Africa region, Mauritania ranked 119th (Mostly Unfree category), Egypt 145 (Mostly Unfree category), Tunisia 149 (Economically Repressed category), and Algeria 160th (Economically Repressed category).

At the global level, the top five positions went to Singapore (84.1 points), Switzerland (83.7 points), Ireland (83.1 points), Taiwan (79.7 points), and Luxembourg (79.5 points).