Hong Kong retained the highest ratings for economic freedom with a comfortable lead over 140 other economies, according to latest global rankings of economic freedom released Tuesday by a Canadian research organization.
The 2008 Economic Freedom of the World report by Fraser Institute gave Hong Kong an overall score of 8.94, out of 10, based on scores in key components such as size of government, legal structures and security of property rights, access to sound money, freedom to trade internationally and regulation of credit, labor and business.
Fraser Institute was launching the annual report from Hong Kong for the first time since 1970, the earliest year measured by the index. Hong Kong has always been the No. 1 on the lists.
"And I don't see that changing in the near future," Mark Mullins, executive director of the Fraser Institute, told a press conference in Hong Kong.
Singapore trailed, again, with a score of 8.57, followed by other top 10 scorers such as New Zealand, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Chile, Canada, Australia, the United States and Ireland.
Chile was the first Latin American economy to break into the top 10.
The Chinese mainland ranked 93 with an overall score of 6.29.
Mullins said the Fraser Institute world economic freedom index was similar to the index of economic freedom released annually by the United States-based Heritage Foundation but different in that the former relied on third-party data and reviews. The Heritage Foundation index was presented in the form of percentage points.
Source:Xinhua
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