The Sultanate of Oman climbed 19 places in the Heritage Foundation’s 2026 Index of Economic Freedom, ranking 39th globally, compared to 58th in 2025.

The index covers 176 economies, measuring economic freedom based on 12 sub-indices distributed across four pillars: the rule of law (including property rights, government integrity, and judicial effectiveness), government size (including government spending, tax burden, and fiscal health), regulatory efficiency (including business freedom, labour freedom, and monetary freedom), and open markets (including 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. Economic freedom is closely linked to healthier societies, a cleaner environment, increased per capita wealth, human development, democracy, and poverty eradication.

Oman’s score improved to 68.5 out of 100, its highest score in the last five years, maintaining its “fairly free” economic classification. This score surpasses both the global and regional averages. The classification comprises five categories, with the higher the score towards 100, the freer the economy.

Oman also recorded the most significant improvement in the Fiscal Health indicator, which reflects marginal tax rates on both personal and corporate income, as well as the overall tax level (including direct and indirect taxes levied by all levels of government) as a percentage of GDP. Its score rose from 63.2 in 2025 to 97.5 out of 100 this year. This progress is attributed to several key factors, most notably a decrease in the public debt-to-GDP ratio and a budget surplus.

Oman also achieved high scores in other indicators, most notably the Trade Freedom Index, which measures the impact of tariff and non-tariff barriers on imports and exports of goods and services. The Sultanate of Oman scored 78.4 out of 100 in this index. This was followed by the Government Spending Index, which encompasses government expenditures, including consumption by the state and all transfer payments related to various benefit programs. The ideal level varies from country to country, with zero spending being used as a benchmark. Oman scored 74.7 out of 100 in this index and 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).

The National Competitiveness Office, represented by the National Team for Improving Network Readiness and Economic Freedom, and led by the National Program for Private Sector Development and Foreign Trade (Nuzhudhur), is striving to achieve a high ranking in the index by developing an action plan in partnership with other relevant entities.

It is worth noting that the National Competitiveness Office is working on monitoring and improving a number of international indicators, especially those included in the Oman Vision 2040 document, in coordination with the relevant authorities, in an effort to achieve advanced competitive rankings in international indicators, which will contribute to raising the performance of Oman at the Gulf, regional and global levels.