BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 15Trend: Azerbaijan ranked first among the five European countries that significantly improved indicators of economic freedom in the 2020 Index of Economic Freedom, prepared by the Heritage Foundation, Trend reports citing a report on Tuesday.

The country reportedly climbed 16 spots in the 2020 Index as a result of significantly higher ratings for business freedom, investment freedom and financial well-being.

The assessment of economic freedom in Azerbaijan is 69.3 (44th position in the 2020 Index among 180 countries). The overall score increased by 3.9 due to significant increases in business freedom, investment freedom and financial well-being. According to this indicator, Azerbaijan ranks 24th among 45 countries of the European region, and its overall score is much higher than the world average.

The report says that Azerbaijan has made significant progress in terms of economic freedom since it was first included in the Index in 1996.