Economic Freedom Report 2008 has ranked Hong Kong number one, followed by Singapore then New Zealand. Zimbabwe once again has the lowest level of economic freedom followed by Angola and Myanmar, according to the Economic Freedom of the World: 2008 Annual Report, released on Thursday by Pakistan's first free market think-tank, Alternate Solutions Institute.
"Weakness in the rule of law and property rights is particularly pronounced in sub-Saharan Africa, among Islamic nations, and for many nations that were part of the former Soviet bloc," said James Gwartney, lead author of the report and professor of Economics at Florida State University.
Pakistan ranked 104 out of 141 countries this year, after ranking 102 (out of 141 countries) in the last year's report. In 2007 Report Pakistan scored 6.08 points out of 10; while this year its scored fell to 6.05. The areas that caused a decline in Pakistan's overall performance are: size of government; legal structure and security of property rights; and, access to sound money. The areas in which Pakistan improved are: freedom to trade internationally; and, regulation of credit, labour, and business.
The annual peer-reviewed report uses 42 different measures to create an index ranking countries around the world based on policies that encourage economic freedom. The cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete and security of private property. The report is produced by Canada's Fraser Institute in co-operation with independent institutes in 76 nations and territories including the Alternate Solutions Institute in Pakistan.
Research shows that individuals living in countries with high levels of economic freedom enjoy higher levels of prosperity, greater individual freedoms, and longer life spans. This year's report also contains new research showing the impact of economic freedom on poverty reduction.
"Economic freedom is one of the key building blocks of the most prosperous nations around the world. Countries with high levels of economic freedom are those in which people enjoy high standards of living and personal freedoms. Countries at the bottom of the index face the opposite situation; their citizens are often mired in poverty, are governed by totalitarian regimes and have few if any, individual rights or freedoms," said Alternate Solutions Institutes' Executive Director, Dr Khalil Ahmad.
Pakistan scores in key components of economic freedom (from 1 to 10 where a higher value indicates a higher level of economic freedom. The key components include the size of government that changed to 7.01 from 7.26 in the last year report, legal structures and security of property rights changed from 4.35 to 4.31, access to sound money changed from 6.50 to 6.45, freedom to trade internationally changed from 5.78 to 5.91, and the regulation of credit, labour and business from 6.49 to 6.56, the reports said.
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