Donald Trump makes the US freer: Heritage Foundation

Leah Millis | Reuters

President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. January 30, 2018.

The U.S. ranked 18th in a 2018 index of global economic freedoms by conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation — a 0.6 percent improvement from the previous year.

Measuring how well governments shape policies that allow labor, capital and goods to move freely, the assessment was based on factors such as rule of law, regulatory efficiency and market openness.

“We’re very upbeat about the U.S. and where it’s going … the reason why it did so much better in this year’s ranking is because of the early deregulation from the Trump era,” Edwin Feulner, founder and former president of the Washington-based group, told CNBC. “The U.S., like it or not, is still the engine that pulls the world train.”

The country’s progress in the 2018 index marks a reversal of a decade-long decline.

“It was just 12 years ago that the United States was fifth in the world, now it’s 18th — that’s not a good run for the last 10 years,” said Feulner. “The United States has not only stopped the decline, it’s moving in the right direction.”