Chile climbs to fifth in the Economic Freedom of the World ranking
Published: September 22, 2009
According to the 2009 Annual Report, released by the Cato Institute and the Canadian Fraser Institute, Chile surpassed countries such as England and the United States thanks to its policy of freedom on international trade.
With a score of 8.14, on a scale of 0 to 10, Chile rose from seventh to fifth place among the countries with the greatest economic freedom in the world. This ranking, in its thirteenth year, measures the extent to which the policies and institutions of the 141 countries evaluated are conducive to economic freedom.
Overall, Hong Kong (8.97 points) leads the ranking, followed by Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland, Chile, USA, Ireland, Canada, Australia and the UK.
The report highlights a dozen nations that have improved their scores by over 2.5 points since 1980, including Chile, Peru, Israel, Hungary, El Salvador and Ghana. Meanwhile, there are only three countries whose positions have declined: Zimbabwe, Venezuela and Myanmar.
This survey measures five factors: the size of the government, the legal structure and the protection of private property rights, access to a stable currency, international exchange, and the regulation of companies, credit, and the labour market.
The report states that economic freedom continues to rise; the average score in 1980 of 5.55 has now risen to 6.70. However, the ranking is based on figures published in 2007, which leads the research centre to warn that short-term, government responses to the global crisis are likely to reduce economic freedom.
"Because the crisis began in 2008, the index does not yet reflect government responses, which have resulted in an increase in public spending. Many countries are also relying heavily on monetary policy, cutting interest rates to stimulate the economy, and some are implementing protectionist measures," explained Juan Carlos Hidalgo, project coordinator for Latin America at the Cato Institute in Washington. Hidalgo indicated that he expects the next two indices to reflect this increase.
For its part, Chile has been rising in the rankings in recent years. While in 2000 it was thirtieth, in last year's report the country reached seventh place. Chile?s score in this latest ranking places it as the leader in Latin America.
Sources:
www.df.clwww.latercera.com