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The Sultanate of Oman advanced 19 positions in the 2026 Index of Economic Freedom issued by the Heritage Foundation, ranking 39th globally compared to its 58th position in 2025.
The index covers 176 economies and aims to measure the level of economic freedom based on 12 sub-indicators distributed across four pillars. These include the rule of law, encompassing property rights, government integrity, and judicial effectiveness; government size, which includes government spending, tax burden, and fiscal health; regulatory efficiency, which includes business freedom, labor freedom, and monetary freedom; and open markets, which include 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 outcomes. Economic freedom is closely associated with healthier societies, a cleaner environment, higher per capita wealth, human development, democracy, and poverty reduction.
Oman’s score rose to approximately 68.5 out of 100, marking the highest score achieved by the Sultanate over the past 5 years, thereby maintaining its classification as “moderately free.” The score exceeded both the global and regional averages. It is worth noting that the classification comprises five categories, with higher scores toward 100 indicating greater economic freedom.
The Sultanate of Oman recorded its most notable 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 imposed by all levels of government, as a percentage of gross domestic product. Its score increased from 63.2 in 2025 to 97.5 out of 100 this year.
This progress is attributed to clear factors, most notably the decline in public debt as a percentage of GDP and the achievement of a fiscal budget surplus. Oman also recorded strong results in other indicators, particularly trade freedom, which measures the impact of tariff and non-tariff barriers on imports and exports of goods and services domestically and internationally, achieving a score of 78.4 out of 100. This was followed by government spending, which refers to public expenditures including state consumption and all transfer payments related to various entitlement programs. The optimal level of spending varies from country to country, with zero spending used as a benchmark, and Oman scored 74.7 out of 100.
The Sultanate maintained its performance in three indicators: tax burden (97.6 out of 100), investment freedom (70 out of 100), and financial freedom (60 out of 100).
The National Competitiveness Office, represented by the national team for improving the Network Readiness and Economic Freedom indices and led by the National Program for Private Sector Development and Foreign Trade (Nazdaher), seeks to achieve a high ranking in the index by developing an action plan in partnership with relevant entities.
It is worth noting that the National Competitiveness Office works to monitor and improve a number of international indicators, particularly those included in the Vision document, in coordination with relevant entities, with the aim of achieving advanced competitive rankings in international indices and enhancing the performance of the Sultanate of Oman at the Gulf, regional, and global levels.