 Hong
Kong is once again ranked as the world's freest economy, scoring
even higher in the Fraser Institute's 2009 "Economic Freedom of
the World" Annual Report, than it did in 2008. In fact, since
the report was created in 1996, Hong Kong has consistently taken
up the 1st place among the 141 countries reviewed; Singapore,
New Zealand, Switzerland and Chile rounded out the top 5. Canada
ranked 8th in the study, down from 7th in 2008. The United
States ranked 6th. In individual categories, Hong Kong ranked
number 1 in "freedom to trade internationally," and 3rd in size
of government, receiving full scores in a number of areas
including, government enterprises and investment, top marginal
tax rate, freedom to own foreign currency bank accounts and
taxes on international trade.
Moving from strength to strength, Hong Kong was also ranked by
the World Bank to be the world's 3rd easier place to do business
in its "2010 Doing Business Report." This is up from 4th place
last year. Just ahead of Hong Kong were Singapore and New
Zealand. Canada ranked 8th. |
|
