Economic freedom index:Â Kazakhstan has the freest economy in Central Asia and Turkmenistan the most repressed, according to the Research Institute of the US Heritage Foundation’s 2015 Index of Economic Freedom. Kazakhstan came in 69th out of the 178 countries included in the index,
followed by Kyrgyzstan (82nd), Azerbaijan (85th) Tajikistan (140th) Russia (143rd), Uzbekistan (159th) and Turkmenistan (172nd). Overall, the freest country in the world is deemed to be Hong Kong and the most repressed North Korea. (several countries, including Syria, Iraq and Sudan were not monitored). Kapital.kz