Singapore ranks First in Economic Freedom Index, Hong Kong removed

A US-based think tank on Thursday published the latest Economic Freedom Index, ranking Singapore on top for the second consecutive year amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Singapore scored the most points among the 184 countries that were covered for the study. Meanwhile, the United States dropped to its lowest points ever, ranking No. 20 globally. The United States remained in the 'mostly free’ category. New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland, and Ireland have been ranked 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th respectively. 

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“Regrettably, some of the policy measures undertaken or planned by governments around the world in response to the global health crisis run the risk of undermining economic freedom and, thus, long-term economic growth and prosperity. Policymakers cannot simply spend their way back to prosperity after the toll that public health responses have taken on local economies,” Index editors Amb. Terry Miller, Anthony Kim, and James Roberts said in a statement.

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Biggest development

The biggest development is that Hong Kong has been left out of the 2021 ranking for the first time because of China’s increasing control of the city’s economic policies. Hong Kong had topped the index for 25 out of 26 years, except for 2020, when it was dethroned by Singapore for the first time. 

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India has been ranked 121st freest in the 2021 index, scoring 56.5 points. India has been ranked 26th among the 40 countries in Asia-Pacific and is ranked under the category of ‘mostly unfree’, alongside China (107th), Bangladesh (120th), Sri Lanka (131st), Nepal (157th), Pakistan (152nd). Other countries that performed poorly are Italy (68th), France (64th), Saudi Arabia (63rd). Cuba, Venezuela, and North Korea have been placed at the bottom of the index, ranked 176th, 177th, and 178th. 

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