ACCORDING to the 2013 Index of
Economic Freedom which was launched in 1995, published annually by The Heritage
Foundation, Hong Kong has maintained its position as the world's freest economy
for the 19th consecutive year due to increased government spending relative to
gross domestic product and an increase in inflation among the 10 economic
freedom factors assessed.
The Index evaluates
countries over 10 economic freedom factors grouped into four broad areas of
economic freedom: rule of law; regulatory efficiency; limited government; and
open markets whose aggregate score is used to rank 177 countries that were
classified either as: "free" (i.e. combined scores of 80 or higher); "mostly
free" (70-79.9); "moderately free" (60-69.9); "mostly unfree" (50-59.9); or
"repressed" (under 50).
No change was
recorded in top four in the index where Hong Kong scored 89.3 on the 1-100
scale, which, 88 of Singapore ranked second while Australia and New Zealand
ranked third and fourth, at 82.6 and 81.4 respectively, enabling the
Asia-Pacific region to account for the four highest ranked countries.
Switzerland
continued to be the only "free" economy in the European region acquiring fifth
rank in the ranking and Mauritius was the only sub-Saharan country to rank
eighth with an overall score of 76.9. Denmark finished ninth, just ahead of the
United States, which remains in tenth.
The US, with an
economic freedom score of 76 slashed down in 2013 Index on account of decline in
monetary freedom, business freedom, labor freedom and fiscal freedom.
The world average
score of 59.6 was only one tenth of a point above the 2012 average. Among the
177 countries ranked in the 2013 Index, scores improved for 91 countries and
declined for 78.
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