Slovenia's climb was fuelled by improvements in the labour market (+10.6 points to 51), business freedom index (+4.7 points to 85.4) and freedom from corruption index (+2 points to 61).

The authors of the ranking however point to the slide Slovenia has seen in fiscal (-6.8 points to 58.9) and monetary freedom (-1.3 points to 80.3).

The ranking of individual countries depends on ten economic freedoms ranging from property rights to entrepreneurship. Slovenia's score is 2.4 points above the global average of 60.3 points.

This is the highest global average recorded since the scale was first introduced two decades ago. 114 countries saw their scores improve in the 2014 economic freedom index, while 59 countries saw a decline.

Topping the index are Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia, while Cuba and North Korea are at the bottom.

Slovenia ranks 34th out of 43 European countries included in the index. Apart from Slovenia, 33 European countries improved their score, while nine saw their indexes slide, among them France, Spain, Finland, Hungary and Croatia.

Since being ranked for the first time in 1996, Slovenia gained 12.3 points, which is the biggest improvement recorded among developed economies, the index authors said.