TODAY VENEZUELA – With the world’s biggest oil reserves, Venezuela has the potential for great prosperity. However, instead it has recorded the largest decline in the Prosperity Index over the past decade.
Venezuela is not the only South American country to see losses in rankings across many sub-indices, but it is unique in how far it has fallen in the Prosperity Index since 2007.
Venezuela ranks 121st of 149.
With the death of Hugo Chavez only occurring in 2013 after suffering years of what Foreign Policy referred to as ‘One of the worst cases of Dutch Disease in the world’, putting oil before any other sector, the country has seen the biggest prosperity decline over the past decade of any country in the Index.
Now in a state of economic emergency and asking for loan repayments with food and other resources instead of a financial transaction, Venezuela is in real trouble. The Index shows that decline has not merely been economic, but across sub-indices. It will take a lot more than rising oil prices to secure prosperity growth for the Venezuelan people.
In Latin America, Uruguay is the most prosperous, followed by Costa Rica in second place, Chile is 3rd, Panama in 4th place and Argentina fifth.
Visit the Rankings table to see how Venezuela compares to other countries.
This is the tenth consecutive study carried out by the Legatum Institute and 149 countries were evaluated on variables such as economics, education, entrepreneurship, governance, health, individual freedom and security, were taken into account to make the ladder.
Globally, New Zealand is the nation that occupies first place of prosperity, followed by Norway, Finland, Switzerland and Canada.
Article originally appeared on Today Venezuela and is republished here with permission.
