 |
| Mentor 4 CA |
India (112th) slips 10 notches in World Economic Freedom
Index 2016
India has slipped 10 positions
and ranks behind Bhutan (78), Nepal (108) and Sri Lanka (111) but stood higher
than China (113), Bangladesh (121) and Pakistan (133) in the World Economic
Freedom Index 2016. Hong Kong topped the index, followed by Singapore and New
Zealand among 159 countries.
The Economic Freedom of the
World: 2016 Annual Report, released worldwide on Friday by the Centre for Civil
Society, a public policy think tank, along with Canada’s Fraser Institute,
measures the degree of economic freedom in countries in five broad areas based
on 2014 data -- size of government: expenditure, taxes and enterprises; legal
structure and security of property rights; access to sound money; freedom to
trade internationally and regulation of credit, labour, and business.
As per the report India has fared
badly in all categories i.e. legal system and property rights (86), sound money
(130), freedom to trade internationally (144) and regulation (132) except the
size of the government (8).
The 10 lowest-ranked countries
are Iran, Algeria, Chad, Guinea, Angola, Central African Republic, Argentina,
Republic of Congo, Libya and lastly Venezuela. Other notable countries include
the United States (16), Germany (30), Japan (40), France (57) and Russia (102).
“The economic freedom index of a
country is directly proportional to the freedom and opportunities available to
its citizens. People living in countries with high levels of economic freedom
enjoy greater prosperity, more political and civil liberties, and longer lives.
On the contrary, countries at the lower levels of freedom index tend to
suppress its citizens’ freedom and rights” said Parth Shah, Founder and
President, Centre for Civil Society, in a release.
In the top quartile, the average income
of the poorest 10 per cent was $11,283, compared with $1,080 in the bottom
quartile in 2014. Interestingly, the average income of the poorest 10 per cent
in the most economically free nations was twice the average per capita income
in the least free nations, says the report.
Life expectancy was 80.4 years in
the top quartile compared with 64 years in the bottom quartile, while political
and civil liberties were also considerably higher in economically free nations.
