Mauritius improves ranking to be ninth free economy

Mauritius improved its ranking and climbed three spots to ninth position -- from last year's 12th -- in this year's just-released international survey of economic freedom.

Hong Kong maintains the highest level of economic freedom worldwide followed by Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland, Chile, the USA, Canada, Australia, Mauritius and the UK, according to the Survey.

"Between 2005 and 2008, the largest improvements occurred in Ghana, Mauritius, Malawi, Turkey, and Rwanda, and the biggest declines were observed in Algeria, Iceland, Chad,Syria, and Ireland," the report said.

The bottom 10 nations in the list are Zimbabwe, Myanmar, Angola, Venezuela, Congo, Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Burundi and Algeria.

The highest form of economic freedom provides an absolute right of property ownership, fully realised freedoms of movement for labour, capital, and goods, and an absolute absence of coercion or constraint of economic liberty beyond the extent necessary for citizens to protect and maintain liberty itself, according to the Index's 2008 definition of economic freedom.

The index scores nations on 10 broad factors of economic freedom -- Business Freedom, Trade Freedom, Monetary Freedom, Government Size, Fiscal Freedom, Property Rights, Investment Freedom, Financial Freedom, Freedom from Corruption and Labour Freedom -- using statistics from organisations like the World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Economist Intelligence Unit.

This year’s publication ranks 141 nations representing 95 per cent of the world’s populationfor 2008, the most recent year for which data is available. The report also updates data in earlier reports in instances where data have been revised.

This year’s report includes new research examining the impact of economic freedom on rates of unemployment. The results suggest that high levels of economic freedom lead to reduced joblessness.

Given the substantial costs of unemployment and the enormous number of jobless peopleworldwide, governments should consider increasing economic freedom as a means of reducing unemployment, particularly in the wake of the global recession, the report said.

Markets foster better cooperation among the citizenry, as reflected in the negative correlationbetween rates of economic freedom and homicide, it added.

Economic Freedom of the World measures the degree to which the policies and institutions ofcountries are supportive of economic freedom. The 2010 report was prepared by JamesGwartney, Gus A Stavros Eminent Scholar Chair at Florida State University; Robert A Lawson, Auburn University; and Joshua Hall, Beloit College.