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Puerto Rico moves up in Economic Freedom Index

The Center for Economic Renewal, Growth and Excellence (CRECE, for its acronym in Spanish) unveiled the results of the 2019 Economic Freedom Index for Puerto Rico, which showed that the island ranked 69 out of 180 countries with a score of 64.4, representing an increase of 3.4 points vs. 2018.

Based on The Heritage Foundation methodology, the study measures the effectiveness of public policy to promote economic freedom and sustainable growth. This is the third edition of the Economic Freedom Index for Puerto Rico.

The level of economic freedom in Puerto Rico is moderate and comparable to that of countries such as Mexico (64.7) and Turkey (64.6). In the Latin American and Caribbean region, the United States, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Barbados, and Mexico outperform Puerto Rico in their ranking of economic freedom and ease of doing business.

This year’s report shows a slight improvement for Puerto Rico in the Subcategory of Freedom of Labor, which rose by 2 points from 2018 to 2019. This increase, although slight, can be attributed to the implementation of the 2017 Labor Reform, through which companies obtained greater flexibility to optimize their operations.

The study focuses on four aspects of the economic environment over which the government exercises public policy. They are: Rule of law; government size; regulatory efficiency; and, market opening. The study was performed by local firm Economic Intelligence.

“The Economic Freedom Index for Puerto Rico is a valuable tool for outlining a path to prosperity and growth,” said Tere Nolla, executive director of CRECE.

“The analysis allows us to study the degree of economic freedom in Puerto Rico, which we know promotes human dignity,” she said. “People living in countries with greater economic freedom enjoy greater food security, higher incomes, better environmental quality, and better quality of life.”

The report also indicates that score improvements in certain subcategories don’t respond to changes in local public policy, but to data limitations available to perform calculations using The Heritage Foundation methodology, after Puerto Rico was excluded from the World Competitiveness Report of the World Economy Forum.

Due to the lack of data, other resources were used that particularly affected scores in the subcategories of Right to Property, Government Integrity and Judicial Effectiveness.

Meanwhile, the report emphasizes that scores in the subcategories of Monetary Freedom, Trade Freedom, Freedom to Invest and Financial Freedom for Puerto Rico are the same as in the United States, because federal public policy applies in these categories. Therefore, any fluctuations in these categories respond to actions taken by the Federal Government.

In 2019, Puerto Rico experimented decreases in government spending, tax health and business freedom scores. The drop in the subcategories of Government Spending and Fiscal Health are due to the increase in government spending for the recovery of Puerto Rico post-Maria that respond to federal funds transfers for the reconstruction of Puerto Rico, but not in government revenue.

In the Freedom of Business category, the score dropped 10.8 points between 2018 and 2019. This reduction is not due to local actions, but to assertive steps taken in other jurisdictions around the world that increased the international average, the study showed.

In other words, countries around the world are acting to improve their Economic Freedom Index and competitiveness, while Puerto Rico remains stagnant.

Economic freedom in PR vs. U.S. cities
For the first time, this year’s report includes a comparison of economic freedom between Puerto Rico and the 50 states focusing on specific U.S. cities. The analysis was conducted using a study by Arizona State University called Doing Business in North America (DBNA).

DBNA measures the economic freedom of 115 cities in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, based on the World Bank’s (DB) Doing Business report.  In the DBNA report, the city with the highest score was Oklahoma City with 85.2, which would position it as the fifth largest economy in the world with the most ease of doing business. In this analysis, Puerto Rico ranks 57, among 66 cities in the United States, with an index of 70.1.

The analytical comparison between Puerto Rico and U.S. cities highlights the importance of expanding economic freedom to effectively compete with states and other countries. The analysis also emphasizes the reason why Puerto Ricans move to cities like Orlando, FL, and Bridgeport, CT, looking for greater opportunities and a better quality of life.

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This story was written by our staff based on a press release.
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