Opened to look at the INDEX OF ECONOMIC FREEDOM...

(published by the American think tank The Heritage Foundation in partnership with The Wall Street Journal. Experts at the Foundation define economic freedom as "the absence of government coercion or constraint on the production, distribution, or consumption of goods and services beyond the extent necessary for citizens to protect and maintain liberty itself." The analysis of economic freedom has been conducted annually since 1995)

Moldova ranks 97th out of 184 countries in 2025. Index = 58.3 points.

The Index number for each country is taken as the arithmetic mean of 12 aspects of economic freedom, taken as a base, which are grouped into four main categories (point scores from 0 to 100).

In total, Moldova in 2025:

• Rule of Law
property rights = 40.2
judicial effectiveness = 31.3
government integrity = 43.4

• Government Size
tax burden = 92.8
government spending = 59.5
fiscal health = 75.9

• Regulatory Efficiency
business freedom = 66.2
labor freedom = 49.1
monetary freedom = 59.4

• Open Markets
trade freedom = 77.2
investment freedom = 55
financial freedom = 50

We are in the group of countries with a mostly unfree economy (index from 50 to 60 points). Our neighboring group members (list in ascending order of the Index of Economic Freedom):
Mozambique, Zambia, Suriname, Malawi, Kiribati, Egypt, Burkina Faso, Laos, Uganda, Comoros, Tajikistan, Niger, Russia, Cameroon, Chad, Togo, Papua New Guinea, Nepal, Mali, India, Nigeria, Nicaragua, Lesotho, Argentina, Guinea, Bangladesh, Rwanda, Kenya, Mauritania, Angola, Brazil, Dominica, Kyrgyzstan, Djibouti, Ecuador, Ghana, Turkey, Solomon Islands, Gabon, Senegal, Eswatini, El Salvador, Gambia, Madagascar, South Africa, Bhutan, Côte d'Ivoire, Uzbekistan, Guyana, Cambodia, MOLDOVA, Tonga, Benin, Namibia, Fiji, Tanzania, Jordan, Honduras, Colombia, Kuwait.

Among Europeans, only three are in the unfree group - Moldova, Turkey, and Russia, among which we are the most economically free. But this is all against the backdrop of a predominantly African continent...

From the former USSR in the group with us - Tajikistan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.
The other post-Soviet republics are located in groups where the economy can breathe easier - in the group with a moderately free economy (from 60 to 70 points; Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Georgia) and in the group with a mostly free economy (from 70 to 80 points; Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia).

And once we were one of the most developed republics...
And now... we just can't seem to remember that in ourselves.
Why?

/the chart shows indicators for the Republic of Moldova, from 1995 to the present day/