According to data from the Index of Economic Freedom (ILE), Mozambique has not made any progress in terms of the business environment. It regressed throughout 2022.  

With an ILE average of 51.3 points in 2022, down from 51.6 points in 2021, Mozambique ranks 32nd out of 47 countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, with the worst average in this region (53.4) and in the world (60.0).

The report also states that over the last decade, Mozambique's economy grew slowly from 2017 to 2019, contracted in 2020 and resumed growth in 2021. Economic freedom has declined from the highs reached at the beginning of this century, but the recent five-year trend is positive.

"With improved scores for government spending and fiscal health, Mozambique has achieved an overall gain of 1.4 economic freedom points since 2017 and has managed to maintain its position in the ′Mostly Unfree′ category for three consecutive years," reads the ILE report, "Monetary freedom is relatively good, but government integrity and investment freedom are very weak," adds the same report.

The ELI measures the degree to which individuals are free to work, produce, consume and invest as they please

The indicator comprises 10 economic freedoms which are grouped into four broad categories and given equal weight: the rule of law, the weight of the public sector, regulatory efficiency and the degree of market openness.

Mozambique's score in the index is in the second worst category (mostly non-free: ILE between 50 and 60 points), making it one of the countries with the least economic freedom.

Of the 10 factors evaluated, the business environment stands out as the one that has deteriorated the most in recent years.

The Center for Democracy and Development, CDD, in its economic governance bulletin, points to inefficiencies in the regulatory framework, saying that Mozambicans are still struggling with a high tax burden (around 27.1% of household income) in a context of widespread corruption at the highest level of government, exacerbated clientelism and competition by various groups for access to state resources.

Mozambique's score in the index is in the second worst category (mostly non-free: ILE between 50 and 60 points), making it one of the countries with the least economic freedom.

In fact, according to the CDD, not even the package of economic acceleration measures has managed to have the desired impact on the private sector and on improving the business environment in Mozambique.