Cabo Verde (Cape Verde), in 57th place with 66.5 points out of a possible 100, is the highest-ranked Portuguese-speaking country in this year’s Index of Economic Freedom, drawn up by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, published Tuesday.

The Heritage Foundation highlights Cabo Verde’s successes with restructuring the rule of law, which facilitated its transition to a more open and flexible economic system and highlights the strong protection of property rights, contrary to what happens in other economies in Sub-Saharan Africa.

After Cabo Verde comes Portugal, in 64th place with 65.1 points, and the next Portuguese-speaking country in this index, São Tomé and Príncipe, appears far behind it in 120th position with 56.7 points.

Both Cabo Verde and Portugal appear in this index under the list of “moderately free” countries.

Brazil (122nd position with 56.5 points), Mozambique (139th with 53.2 points) and Guinea-Bissau (145th position with 51.8 points) and São Tomé, already appear in the list of “mostly unfree” countries.

Angola (156th place with 48.9 points) and Timor Leste (East Timor – 167th place with 45.8 points) are listed as economically “repressed”.

The Index of Economic Freedom is led by Hong Kong, with 88.6 points, and the Chinese special administrative region is followed by Singapore (87.8 points), New Zealand (81.6), Switzerland (81) and Australia (80.3 points). (macauhub/AO/BR/CV/GW/MZ/PT/ST/TL)