Report: Hong Kong and Singapore world's freest economies

Jan 20, 2010, 9:22 GMT

Hong Kong - Hong Kong has held on to its title as the world's freest economy for the 16th year running, according to an annual index published Wednesday.

The city emerged at the top of the Index of Economic Freedoms released by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington-based think tank, and The Wall Street Journal financial newspaper.

Second place went to Singapore, which has also held on to the runner-up title for 16 consecutive years.

Australia was ranked third, followed by New Zealand, Ireland, Switzerland and Canada, all of which were categorized as 'free' in the index.

The United States and Britain were ranked among the 'mostly free' economies, taking eighth and 11th place, respectively.

China ranked 140th with a score that put it in the 'mostly unfree' category while at the bottom was North Korea, one of 25 countries ranked as 'repressed.'

Also ranked as 'repressed' were Vietnam, Myanmar and Zimbabwe.

The index measures economic freedom within 10 categories of freedoms, including labour, business, trade, property rights and freedom from corruption.

Each country is awarded a score with the maximum of 100 points, representing the ideal. The higher the score, the lower the level of government interference in the marketplace.

Hong Kong scored 89.7, down 0.3 points from last year, while North Korea managed 1 point, a fall of 1 point from 2009.

Overall, the average economic freedom score was 59.4, down 0.1 points compared with the year before.

Heritage Foundation president Edwin Feulner said confidence in economic freedoms has been tested in many countries as a result of increased government intervention aimed at promoting growth and employment.

Asia emerged at the world's most economically mixed region, being home to some of the freest and the most repressed economies.