According to 2013 Index of Economic Freedom, released on January 10, 2013 by The Heritage Foundation public policy research institute and The Wall Street Journal newspaper, Armenia is ranked as "a moderately free country" in 2013 Index among the 177 countries, with its economic freedom score 69.4 making its economy the 38th freest in the world. Wheras in 2011, 2009 and 2008 Armenia was ranked higher with 69.7 and 69.9, 69.9 scores respectively. By comparison, the world's most-improved country is Georgia, which saw its score rise 2.8 points, giving it an overall score of 72.2 and a place among the world's "mostly free" economies.

Armenia's overall score has slightly improved, increased by 0.6 point from last year, mainly reflecting the better management of public spending. Although it performs relatively well in many categories of economic freedom, stronger foundations are needed in areas like judicial independence and government transparency. Armenia lacks dependable enforcement of the rule of law. Its scores for property rights and freedom from corruption are well below world averages.

Compared with last year's Index of Economic Freedom, Armenia's scores remained unchanged in 5 categories out of 10 (trade freedom- 85.4, investment freedom-75.0, financial freedom- 70.0, property rights-30.0, freedom from corruption-26.0). The country improved its scores in 2 categories (labor freedom- 77.1 and government spending 82.1). Whereas its scores declined in 3 categories (business freedom-87.6, monetary freedom- 73.0 and fiscal freedom-88.0).

Based on its aggregate score, each of the countries graded in the the Index was classified as "free" (i.e. combined scores of 80 or higher); "mostly free" (70-79.9); "moderately free" (60-69.9); "mostly unfree" (50-59.9); or "repressed" (under 50).

In accordance with the methodology ten components of economic freedom are measured, assigning a grade in each using a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 represents the maximum freedom. The 10 economic freedoms are grouped into four broad categories or pillars of economic freedom: rule of law; limited government; regulatory efficiency and open markets.

There are 10 specific categories to rank economic freedom: (rule of law) property rights, freedom from corruption, (limited government) fiscal freedom, government spending, (regulatory efficiency) business freedom, labor freedom, monetary freedom, (open markets) trade freedom, investment freedom and financial freedom. Scores in these categories are averaged to create an overall score.

For full information on the index of economic freedom please visit The Heritage Foundation website, and for information on Armenia at http://www.heritage.org/Index/Country/Armenia webpage and see Armenia: 2013 Index of Economic Freedom.