The UAE is among the Arab world’s economically freest nations for the second year in a row, a report says, although its rating has declined slightly from last year.
Bahrain, the UAE, and Jordan have the most economic freedom in the Middle East, according to a report by Canada’s Fraser Institute.
All three countries have an overall ranking of eight out of 10 in the institute’s Economic Freedom of the Arab World survey this year, which tracks five key economic measures.
The UAE and Bahrain shared top spot in the institute’s rankings last year with an 8.1 rating.
In the UAE’s case, its slight rating decline was caused by a dip in its score on its size of government to 7.8 from 7.9 last year, because of an increase in transfers and subsidies as a percentage of GDP.
Likewise, Bahrain’s rating was affected by a drop in its score for regulation of labour, credit and business to 8.8 from 8.9 last year.
Algeria had the lowest economic freedom ranking of 5.8 out of 10, followed by Iraq (6.1) and Mauritania (6.3).
The annual report is published in partnership with Germany’s Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty and the International Research Foundation of Oman.
It compares and ranks Arab nations in five economic areas: the size of government (including expenditures, taxes and enterprises); commercial and economic law and the security of property rights; access to money; freedom to trade internationally; and the regulation of credit, labour and business.
The UAE, the highest ranked Arab country in the report published in September, placed fifth behind Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand and Switzerland.
Bahrain, the next highest ranking Arab country, was in eighth place, followed by Jordan (13), Qatar (23) and Lebanon (38).
jeverington@thenational.ae
Awar Qalb
Director: Jamal Salem
Starring: Abdulla Zaid, Joma Ali, Neven Madi and Khadija Sleiman
Two stars
Who are the Sacklers?
The Sackler family is a transatlantic dynasty that owns Purdue Pharma, which manufactures and markets OxyContin, one of the drugs at the centre of America's opioids crisis. The family is well known for their generous philanthropy towards the world's top cultural institutions, including Guggenheim Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate in Britain, Yale University and the Serpentine Gallery, to name a few. Two branches of the family control Purdue Pharma.
Isaac Sackler and Sophie Greenberg were Jewish immigrants who arrived in New York before the First World War. They had three sons. The first, Arthur, died before OxyContin was invented. The second, Mortimer, who died aged 93 in 2010, was a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma. The third, Raymond, died aged 97 in 2017 and was also a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma.
It was Arthur, a psychiatrist and pharmaceutical marketeer, who started the family business dynasty. He and his brothers bought a small company called Purdue Frederick; among their first products were laxatives and prescription earwax remover.
Arthur's branch of the family has not been involved in Purdue for many years and his daughter, Elizabeth, has spoken out against it, saying the company's role in America's drugs crisis is "morally abhorrent".
The lawsuits that were brought by the attorneys general of New York and Massachussetts named eight Sacklers. This includes Kathe, Mortimer, Richard, Jonathan and Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, who are all the children of either Mortimer or Raymond. Then there's Theresa Sackler, who is Mortimer senior's widow; Beverly, Raymond's widow; and David Sackler, Raymond's grandson.
Members of the Sackler family are rarely seen in public.
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
