The Portuguese version of the Index of Economic Freedom is launched every year in Brazil, during the Liberty Forum, in Porto Alegre city, at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul.

For over a decade, The Wall Street Journal and The Heritage Foundation, Washington's preeminent think tank, have tracked the march of economic freedom around the world with the influential Index of Economic Freedom.

What is economic freedom?

Economic freedom is the fundamental right of every human to control his or her own labor and property. In an economically free society, individuals are free to work, produce, consume, and invest in any way they please, with that freedom both protected by the state and unconstrained by the state. In economically free societies, governments allow labor, capital and goods to move freely, and refrain from coercion or constraint of liberty beyond the extent necessary to protect and maintain liberty itself.

How do you measure economic freedom?

We measure ten components of economic freedom, assigning a grade in each using a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 represents the maximum freedom. The ten component scores are then averaged to give an overall economic freedom score for each country.

The ten components of economic freedom are:

Business Freedom | Trade Freedom | Fiscal Freedom | Government Spending | Monetary Freedom | Investment Freedom | Financial Freedom | Property rights | Freedom from Corruption | Labor Freedom

The Portuguese version of the index is translated every year in Brazil by Instituto Liberdade, and launched during the Brazilian Liberty Forum annual event, attended by more than 5,000 people, organized by Instituto de Estudos Empresariais and co-sponsored by Instituto Liberdade.

The complete version can be downloaded by selecting the link above.