PITY WE LOST INDJA...:

Economic Freedom of the World 2007 Annual Report (Fraser Institute, 9/04/07)

In this year's main index, Hong Kong retains the highest rating for economic freedom, 8.9 out of 10. The other top scorers are: Singapore (8.8), New Zealand (8.5), Switzerland (8.3), Canada (8.1), United Kingdom (8.1), United States (8.1), Estonia (8.0), Australia (7.9), and Ireland (7.9).

The rankings and scores of other large economies are Germany, 18 (7.6); Japan, 22 (7.5); Mexico, 44 (7.1); France, 52 (7.0); Italy, 52 (7.0); India, 69 (6.6); China, 86 (6.3); Brazil, 101 (6.0); and Russia, 112 (5.8).

The majority of nations ranked near the bottom are African and all the nations in the bottom 10 are African, with the exceptions of Venezuela and Myanmar. They are: Zimbabwe (2.9), Myanmar (3.8), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (4.0), Angola (4.2), the Republic of the Congo (4.3), Central Africa Republic (4.6), Venezuela (4.9), Burundi (5.0), Chad (5.1), Togo (5.1) and Niger (5.1). Botswana's ranking, tied for 38th with a score of 7.2, is the best among sub-Saharan African nations.

Five nations increased their score by more than three points since 1980: Hungary (3.0), Peru (3.0), Uganda (3.2), Ghana (3.6), and Israel (3.7). Only three nations decreased their score by more than one point: Zimbabwe (-1.7), Venezuela (-1.7) and Myanmar (-1.3). Other nations that saw reductions are: Nepal (-0.7), Bahrain (-0.3), Hong Kong (-0.2), Malaysia (-0.2), the Republic of Congo (-0.2), and Haiti (-0.1).

The predominance of the Anglosphere at the top is obvious.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 6, 2007 6:27 PM