PH up 8 notches to join ‘moderately free’ economies in global survey

MANILA – The Philippines has jumped eight notches up a global ranking based ont the amount of freedom an economy enjoys.

In its 2014 Index of Economic Freedom, the Washington-based Heritage Foundation said the Philippines ranked 89th out of 178 countries, up from the previous year’s 97th.

The Philippines’ score of 60.1 in 2014 is 1.9 points higher than last year, “reflecting notable improvements in investment freedom, business freedom, monetary freedom, and the control of government spending. ”

The country ranks 16th out of 42 countries in the Asia–Pacific region, but its overall score is slightly below the world average.

Over the 20-year history of the index, the Philippines’ economic freedom score has advanced by 5.1 points.

Improvements in seven of the 10 economic freedoms, including significant gains in trade freedom, investment freedom, and freedom from corruption, have been partially offset by deterioration in property rights.

The Philippines scored 60 in investment freedom; 75, trade freedom; and 26.1, freedom from corruption.

With its third consecutive year of improvement, the Philippines has risen back to “moderately free” status this year, Heritage said.

“Demonstrating a high degree of resilience, the Philippine economy has recorded average annual growth of around five percent over the past five years,” Heritage said, citing a series of legislative reforms to enhance the investment environment and provide incentives to broader-based private-sector job growth.

“Despite progress, lingering institutional challenges will not be overcome without a deeper commitment to reform. Although the perceived level of corruption has declined, more effective anti-corruption measures need to be firmly institutionalized,” the foundation said.

The top 10 economies this year are Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, Switzerland, New Zealand, Canada, Chile, Mauritius, Ireland and Denmark.

In Southeast Asia, the Philippines trailed Malaysia (37th) and Thailand (72nd), but was ahead of Indonesia (100th) and Vietnam (147th).

Launched in 1995, the index evaluates countries according to four broad areas of economic freedom: rule of law; regulatory efficiency; limited government; and open markets.

Based on its aggregate score, each of 177 countries graded in the 2013 index was classified as “free” if it scored 80 or higher; “mostly free” if scoring between 70-79.9; “moderately free,” 60-69.9; “mostly unfree,” 50-59.9; or “repressed,” if the score fell below 50.

There are 10 specific categories: property rights, freedom from corruption, fiscal freedom, government spending, business freedom, labor freedom, monetary freedom, trade freedom, investment freedom, and financial freedom. Scores in these categories are averaged to get the overall score. -Darwin G. Amojelar, InterAksyon.com