Heritage Foundation: Chile Ranks No. 11 in Economic FreedomPublicado el: 18 de mayo de 2007
Only two nations in the Americas rank higher than Chile: the U.S. (4th) and Canada (10th). Other South American countries included in the ranking are Uruguay (33rd), Peru (63rd), Brazil (70th), Argentina (95th), Ecuador (108th), and Bolivia (112th).
At an international level, two of Chile's strengths were its macroeconomic and institutional credibility, features that are reflected in its high ranking in the Heritage Foundation's 2007 Index of Economic Freedom. Chile was awarded 11th place in the Index with a rating of 78.3%, climbing three spots over its 2006 ranking.
With this rating, Chile falls among the countries considered "mostly free" like Switzerland, Finland, and Japan. These latter nations have higher levels of income but, in the Index's assessment, are constrained by obstacles hindering greater economic freedom.
The category of "Property Rights" received the best rating, 90 out of 100 points. "Business Freedom" was the category receiving the least favorable rating, with the comment that "closing a business can be extremely burdensome." Nonetheless, Chile's progress over the past year is encouraging, since it is now well above the global average (60.6) and that of the rest of the Americas (62.3).
The report also indicates that Chile is perceived to have minimal corruption and emphasizes that Chile is ranked 21st in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index.
Furthermore, the report mentions that the nation signed an important trade agreement with China in 2006 and is engaged in negotiating similar treaties with India and Japan.
As for labor freedom, the study indicates that Chile's labor market is among the top 20 most flexible in the world, reflected by an average of 85.3 in this category.
The Heritage Foundation calculates this index based on a variety of factors including time spent in obtaining a business license, regulatory frameworks, property rights, economic independence from the government, corruption indices, and prevailing monetary policy, among others.