Ratings: Armenia is bit less free than year ago

by Emil Sanamyan

Published: Thursday February 04, 2010

Related Articles

Armenia’s economy still ranked among world’s freest

Freedom House catalogues worldwide media struggles

Washington - Two Washington think tanks issued their annual ratings last month that indicated a slight deterioration in Armenia's performance compared to a year ago.

Economic Freedom Index that the Heritage Foundation publishes together with the Wall Street Journal ranked Armenia 38^th freest in the world, down from 31^st position in 2009. The think tank cited perception of widespread corruption and weak protection of property rights as two areas in which Armenia underperformed.

For the first time in years Georgia overtook Armenia in the Index, placing 26^th; other regional and former Soviet countries ranked worse than Armenia.

Freedom in the World report issued by the Freedom House ranked Armenia "partly free" but close to the "not free" category.

The report was preceded by a campaign from the government of Azerbaijan, which has been rated "not free," against the report's separate ranking for Nagorno Karabakh, which like Armenia is deemed "partly free."

While Freedom House kept the separate ranking in place, the report's map removed a description of Nagorno Karabakh as disputed between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Both ratings are considered when U.S. decides countries' eligibility for U.S. Millennium Challenge assistance.