Morocco is ranked 89 among 178 countries in the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom 2015. According to the report, Morocco’s economic freedom score is 60.1 and is found in the group of “moderately free” countries.

The report added that Morocco’s score is 1.8 points better than last year, reflecting considerable improvement in five of the ten economic freedoms, including labor freedom, monetary freedom, and investment freedom, which outweigh declines in business freedom and the management of government spending. [Morocco World News, 1/29/2015]

Iraq’s parliament approved a budget worth 119 trillion Iraqi dinars ($105 billion). The budget was made possible by improved ties between Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdish region but constrained by plunging global oil prices. The budget, revised to trim the expected price of oil to $56 a barrel, down from the $70 originally assumed, foresees a 25 trillion dinar deficit.The budget’s approval represents a victory for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who fears lower oil revenues could hurt Iraq’s military campaign against Islamic State. [Reuters, 1/30/2015]

Figures released by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) show that crude shipments from Libya arrived on US shores in only two months of last year. Data showed that the United States imported 308,000 barrels of Libyan crude in September and a much larger quantity, 1.7 million barrels  in November, the largest shipment since August 2013. [Libya Monitor (subscription), 1/30/2015]

According to the latest figures issued by the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency, the flow of foreign investments into Tunisia dropped by 5.8 percent, to 1.878,6 million dinars (MTD) in 2014. Compared to the 2010 figures, where foreign investments reached 2.417,1 MTD, this represents a drop of 22.3 percent. [TAP (subscription), 1/30/2015]