Highlights of the 2022 INDEX of Economic Freedom

Por Terry Miller, Anthony B. Kim, James M. Roberts with Patrick Tyrrell

Since early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and particularly the many restrictions on economic activity and the movement of people that governments have imposed in response to it have wreaked havoc on the world economy. Almost every economy included in this Index experienced negative growth

in 2020, which is not surprising given that so many of the actions that governments have taken in the name of protecting public health have also had the effect of reducing economic freedom. These restrictions have exacted a cost in terms of human well-being that must be added to the enormous cost of the death toll from the disease itself. The result is a worldwide catastrophe.