`India
53rd in economic freedom`
BS Reporter / New Delhi September 08, 2006
India's ranking in a global economic freedom rating list has
improved from 13 notches from 66 last year to 53 this year.
The latest annual report of Economic Freedom Ratings developed
by the Frazer Institute has given India a rating of 6.7 out
of a possible 10 points. The report seeks to measure the degree
to which the policies and institutions of countries are supportive
of economic freedom.
While Hong Kong retains its highest ranking of economic freedom
with a rating of 8.7, Singapore (8.5), New Zealand (8.2),
Switzerland (8.2) and the United States (8.2) occupy the other
top five slots in the comparison of 130 countries.
China, with a rating of 5.7, shares the 95th spot along with
Bangladesh, Pakistan, Ivory Coast, Ecuador, Morocco and Romania.
The rankings of other large economies are UK (6th rank, 8.1),
Canada (8th rank, 8.0), Germany (17th rank, 7.6), Japan (19th
rank, 7.5), France (24th rank, 7.3), Italy (45th rank, 6.9),
Mexico (60th rank, 6.6), Brazil (88th rank, 5.9) and Russia
(102nd rank, 5.6). Zimbabwe ranked last (130th) with a rating
of 2.8.
The report uses 38 data points to construct a summary index
and measure the degree of economic freedom in five areas —
size of government, legal structure and security of property
rights, access to sound money, freedom to trade internationally
and regulation of credit, labour and business.
Within these five broad areas are incorporated 21 components,
which themselves are made up of further sub components.
On the size of government, India is ranked 7th with a rating
of 8.2, while it secures the 44th rank in the area of legal
structure and security of property rights with a rating of
6.3.
On access to sound money, it ranks 98th with a rating of 7.0
and on the criteria of freedom to trade internationally, it
ranks 82nd with a rating of 6.4.
Regulation of credit, labour and business are subdivided into
three further criteria - credit market regulations (5.9, 114th
rank), labour market regulations (5.7, 48th rank) and business
regulations (4.7, 69th rank). Overall, it gets a rating of
5.4 for the 97th rank in this section.
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