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Taiwan Advances to World's 17th in Economic Freedom in 2014

2014/01/24 | By Judy Li

Taiwan jumps three ranks from a year earlier to the 17th worldwide and the fifth in the Asia-Pacific region in this year's Index of Economic Freedom, published by the Washington-based Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal.

The Heritage Foundation has assessed 185 economies globally for 2014 and given them economic freedom index based on 10 factors including labor freedom, property right, freedom from corruption, fiscal freedom, government spending, business freedom, monetary freedom, trade freedom, investment freedom and financial freedom.

Last year Taiwan was ranked 20th and this year Taiwan's overall score is up 1.2 points to 72.7 with the rank advancing three positions to the 17th, better than South Korea's 31st.

Among the 10 sub-indexes, Taiwan sees the biggest improvement in financial freedom, which rises 10 points to 60 on the 100-point scale, with the rank surging to 41st from 70th thanks to the recent start of the cross-strait monetary clearance mechanism and the further liberalization on financial policies.

Likewise, the investment freedom rose five points to 70, with the rank jumping 10 positions to 46th due mainly to the recent inking of industrial cooperation packs with Japan.

However, the labor freedom gains scores of only 53.1 with global ranking of 126th, showing heavy protection and regulations still imposed on the domestic labor market. Besides, lower scores are seen in freedom from corruption, monetary freedom and business freedom. (JL)

Ranking of Economic Freedom of World's Major Economies by Heritage Foundation for 2014
Rank

Economy

1

Hong Kong

2

Singapore

3

Australia

4

Switaerland

5

New Zealand

12

The United States

14

The United Kingdom

17

Taiwan

18

Germany

25

Japan

31

South Korea

120

India

137

China

178

North Korea

Source: Heritage Foundation