Nepal figures 129th position in the 'Economic Freedom of the World: 2011 Annual Report released recently by the Economic Freedom Network.

The same annual report released last year had rated Nepal at 121st position with a score 5.54.

Economic Freedom of the World is measured in five broad areas including - Size of Government: Expenditures, Taxes, and Enterprises; Legal Structure and Security of Property Rights; Access to Sound Money; Freedom to Trade Internationally and Regulation of Credit, Labor, and Business.

As per the report, Nepal continues to degrade in all the five measured areas of the economic freedom.

Economic Freedom of the World also uses forty-two data points to construct a summary index of the countries around the world. The cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete, and security of privately owned property.

The rule of law is an integral requite for economic prosperity, Samriddhi-The Prosperity Foundation, which quoted constitutional expert Dr. Bhimarjun Acharya as saying.

During the launching programme of the report on Tuesday, he also said that the political parties should understand the meaning and need of economic freedom so, that Nepal can perform better in the future reports of World Freedom.

Similarly, senior economist, Dr. Bishwamber Pyakurel said that Nepal should have appropriate policies with stable politics for economic prosperity.

On the same occasion, other senior economist Dr. Chiranjibi Nepal said that there should be open doors to economic freedom for the development of national economy.

As per the five indicators, Nepal’s score has improved in legal structures and security of property rights to 3.9 from 3.51; freedom to trade internationally also improved from 5 to 5.40 while score in size of government has lowered from 6.20 to 6.10; access to sound money downed from 6.36 to 6.10 and regulation of credit, labour and business also plunged from 6.16 to 6.

The report 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 while 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.

The report ranks Hong Kong number one in Economic Freedom with 9.01 out of 10, followed by Singapore (8.68), New Zealand (8.20), Switzerland (8.03), Australia (7.98), Canada (7.81), Chile (7.77), the United Kingdom (7.71), Mauritius (7.67), and the United States (7.60).

Zimbabwe maintains the lowest level of economic freedom among the 141 nations Myanmar, Venezuela, Angola, and Democratic Republic of Congo are the bottom five nations.

The annual 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, including Samriddhi from Nepal. nepalnews.com