Nepal still 'least free' country economically

Nepal ranks 121 acoring 5.54 among the 141 economies in the Economic Freedom of the World Report released today in Nepal by Samriddhi -- The Prosperity Foundation -- in association of Society of Economic Journalists-Nepal (Sejon).
The report shows that over the last one decade economic freedom has steadily regressed in Nepal to 5.54 this year from 5.75 in 2000.
"Though Nepal’s rank has slightly improved this year with a score of 5.54 because of the decrease of score of other countries, Nepal’s economic freedom score has in fact decreased from last year’s score of 5.68," said senior economist and former secretary Dr Bhola Chalise.
"Nepal continues to be one of the least free countries in the world in case of economic freedom," he said, adding that the areas that caused a decline in Nepal’s overall performance are size of government, access to sound money, freedom to trade internationally and Regulation of Credit, Labour, and Business.
"The only area where Nepal improved slightly is legal structure and security of property rights, with its score (rank) going up from 3.40 (112) to 3.51 (111)," Chalise added. "Nepal capacity to trade internationally has taken a plunge over last one decade."
The annual peer-reviewed Economic Freedom of the world report is produced by the Fraser Institute -- Canada’s leading public policy think-tank -- in cooperation with independent institutes in 80 nations and territories.
The Report uses 42 different measures to create an index ranking countries around the world based on policies that encourage economic freedom. The cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete, and security of private property. This year’s publication ranks 141 nations representing 95 per cent of the world’s population for 2008, the most recent year for which data is available.
"Economic freedom is measured in five different areas like size of government, legal structure and security of property rights, access to sound money, freedom to trade internationally, and regulation of credit, labour, and business.
The Report shows that individuals living in countries with high levels of economic freedom enjoy higher levels of prosperity, greater individual freedoms, and longer life spans. This year’s report also contains a new research showing the impact of economic freedom on the rates of unemployment and homicide. "Increase in economic freedom decreases homicide and unemployment rates," according to the Report that also shows that countries with more economic freedom have substantially higher per-capita incomes, higher growth rates, Life expectancy is about 20 years longer in freer countries.
People living in countries with more economic freedom report more life satisfaction. With fewer regulations, taxes, and tariffs, economic freedom reduces the degree of corruption.
Hong Kong maintains the highest level of economic freedom worldwide, with a score of 9.05out of 10. The other top scorers are Singapore (8.70), New Zealand (8.27),Switzerland (8.08), Chile (8.03), the US (7.96), Canada (7.95), Australia (7.90), Mauritius (7.82), and the UK (7.81).
Zimbabwe maintains the lowest level of economic freedom among the 141 jurisdictions analysed, followed by Myanmar, Angola, and Venezuela
Initiated by Milton Friedman, one of the most famous economists of 20th century and Michael Walker, the founder of Fraser Insitute and prepared by Fraser Institute, a leading think tank based in Canada, the report is supported by Economic Freedom of the World Network’s member organisations in more than 80 countries all over the world.