Uruguay’s place in the ranking of economic freedom: how did it fare compared to the rest of the world?

Uruguay obtained 7.18 points out of a total of 10 in the Index of Economic Freedom (ILE) 2026, prepared by the Fraser Institute and published in Uruguay by the Center for Development Studies (CED). With that score, the country was ranked 59th out of a total of 165 countries. Although the score increased 0.02 points compared to the previous year’s editionthe country fell six positions in the ranking, because other countries registered greater progress.

The index measures the degree to which a country’s policies and institutions support the economic freedom based on 42 indicators grouped into five areas: size of government; legal system and property law; monetary stability; freedom of international trade; and regulation.

The 2026 edition, which uses data from 2024, noted that “in a world with some progress, Uruguay It remains slightly behind in its level of economic freedom.” Over the last 20 years, the country’s score has oscillated between 7 and 7.5 points.

Of the five dimensions that make up the index, the Monetary stability It was the one that obtained the highest score for Uruguay, with 8.62 points, although it ranked 70th among the 165 countries.

The report noted that Uruguay obtained good results in that dimension due to the reduction of the inflation observed since 2023. Among the indicators in which it presented the best results, he mentioned: the growth of money, the standard deviation of inflation, the possibility of opening accounts in foreign currency and the absence of a black market of foreign currency.

The other dimensions in which the country obtained better results were: Freedom of international tradewith 8.06 points and 58th place; Regulationwith 6.58 points and 75th place; Government sizewith 6.56 points and 93rd place; and Legal system and property lawwith 6.08 points and 50th place.

Center for Development Studies (CED).

Compared to the previous edition, the most important change occurred in Freedom of international tradewhose score increased 0.09 points, while Regulation registered a drop of 0.21 points.

In the long-term evolution, the CED document highlighted the change registered in the category Monetary stability which went from being the worst performing category in Uruguay until 1995 to becoming the country’s main strength today.

At the Latin American level, Chile was the best-placed country, followed by Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama. At the other extreme are Bolivia, in 144th place; Argentina, at 151; and Venezuela, at 165, last place in the ranking.

Compared to the “freest countries” of South AmericaUruguay was behind Chile, which obtained 7.85 points and ranked 20th worldwide, and Peru, with 7.44 points and ranked 45th.

When comparing Uruguay with Chile, Costa Rica, Panama and Peru, the four best-positioned countries in Latin America, the biggest difference was in the category Government size. In 2024, Uruguay obtained 6.56 points in this dimension, compared to an average of 7.49 points for the four reference countries. The difference, of 0.93 points, was the largest among the five areas.

Center for Development Studies (CED).

According to the report of CEDthis gap explains about 38% of the difference between Uruguay’s total score, of 7.18 points, and the average of 7.67 points registered by that group of countries. Furthermore, the document indicated that Uruguay has obtained the lowest score of the group in Government size in all years between 2019 and 2024.

In the 2026 edition at a global level, Hong Kong took first place in the ranking as the freest country, with 8.53 points, followed by Swiss (8,45), Singapore (8,43), Nueva Zeeland (8,38) y USA (8,21).

The report noted that global economic freedom has increased significantly over recent decades, although covid-19 pandemic It implied a decline that took the index to levels similar to those of 2012.

“The ILE results once again confirm that countries with higher levels of economic freedom “They tend to be richer, have better educational levels, enjoy longer life expectancy and have lower mortality rates,” the report stated.