Cato Institute Releases Report Ranking Hong Kong World's Freest Economy
Hong Kong remains the world's freest economy according to the findings of the "Economic Freedom of the World: 2008 Annual Report" released by the Cato Institute. This marks the 12th consecutive year Hong Kong has topped the ranking.
The report, produced by Canada's Fraser Institute and the Economic Freedom Network, a group of independent institutes in 75 nations and territories, ranks 141 economies for 2006, the most recent year for which data are available, on policies that are supportive of economic freedom.
Hong Kong retains the highest rating for economic freedom with a score of 8.94 out of 10, followed by Singapore and New Zealand. The United States ties for eighth with Australia.
Speaking at the "Celebrating the Miracle of Hong Kong" gala dinner organized by the Fraser Institute at the Conrad Hong Kong, Chief Executive Donald Tsang welcomed the report's findings, saying that the Fraser Institute and Hong Kong shared an "unswerving commitment" to free trade and open markets.
Mr. Tsang said that Hong Kong valued such accolade and pledged to continue to "walk the walk" of economic freedom in the years ahead.
The report uses 42 different measures to construct a summary index and to measure the degree of economic freedom in five broad areas: size of government; legal structure and security of property rights; access to sound money; freedom to trade internationally; and regulation of credit, labor and business.
The first Economic Freedom of the World Report, published in 1996, was the result of a decade of research by a team which included several Nobel Laureates, such as Milton Friedman, and over sixty leading scholars in a broad range of fields, from economics to political science, and from law to philosophy.
Chief Executive speech at the Fraser Institute gala dinner: http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/200809/16/P200809160287.htm
For more information on the Economic Freedom Network, data sets, and previous Economic Freedom of the World reports, please visit http://www.freetheworld.com/index.html
Cato Institute: http://www.cato.org/pubs/efw/
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