Monday 16 / March / 2026
Muscat: The Sultanate of Oman advanced 19 places in the 2026 Index of Economic Freedom, published by the Heritage Foundation, thus ranking 39th globally in 2026, compared to 58th ranking in 2025.
The index covers 176 economies. It measures the level of economic freedom based on 12 sub-indices distributed across four domains, which are the Rule of Law (covering Property rights, judicial effectiveness, and government integrity); Government Size (covering Tax burden, government spending, and fiscal health); Regulatory Efficiency (covering Business freedom, labour freedom, and monetary freedom); and Open Markets (covering Trade freedom, investment freedom, and financial freedom).
The Index of Economic Freedom documents the positive relationship between economic freedom and a range of social and economic goals. Generally, economic freedom is closely linked to indicators of healthier societies, a cleaner environment, increased per capita wealth, human development, democracy and poverty eradication.
Oman’s current score improved to 68.5 out of 100, posting the country's highest score in the last five years and maintaining its “fairly free” economic classification. This score surpasses both global and regional averages. The index comprises 5 categories: It measures economic freedom on a 0–100 scale, with higher scores indicating greater freedom.
Oman achieved the best improvement in the Fiscal Health Index, which reflects marginal tax rates on both personal and corporate income, as well as the overall tax burden as a percentage of GDP (This includes direct and indirect taxes levied by all levels of government).
Oman’s score rose from 63.2 out of 100 in 2025 to 97.5 out of 100 this year. This progress is due to clear-cut factors, most notably a decline in the public debt-to-GDP ratio and a budget surplus.
Oman also achieved high scores in the Trade Freedom Index (which measures the impact of tariff and non-tariff barriers on imports and exports of goods and services) in which it scored 78.4 out of 100.
In addition, Oman scored high in the Government Spending Index (which covers government expenditures) in which the country scored 74.7 out of 100. This index deals with consumption by the state and all transfer payments related to various entitlement programmes. The ideal level varies from country to country, with zero spending being used as a benchmark.
Oman maintained its score in three other indicators: the Tax Burden Index (97.6/100), the Investment Freedom Index (70/100) and the Financial Freedom Index (60/100).
