site.btaBulgaria Ranks 40th among 151 Countries And Hong Kong Included in Economic Freedom of the World 2014 Annual Report

113 ECONOMICS - BULGARIA - ECONOMIC FREEDOM - REPORT

Bulgaria Ranks 40th among 151 Countries
And Hong Kong Included in
Economic Freedom of the World 2014 Annual Report


Sofia, October 7 (BTA) - Bulgaria ranks 40th of 151 countries
and Hong Kong included in the Economic Freedom of the World 2014
Annual Report prepared by the Canadian Fraser Institute and
distributed here by the Institute of Market Economy on Tuesday.

The report is based on 2012 statistics (the most recent year of
available data), the press release says.

Hong Kong is once again the most economically free jurisdiction
in the world, followed by Singapore, New Zealand, and
Switzerland. Venezuela again retains the title of the world's
least economically free country. Globally, the average economic
freedom score dropped slightly to 6.84 out of 10 from 6.87 last
year.

The United States, once considered a bastion of economic
freedom, now ranks 12th in the world, tied with the United
Kingdom. The report measures the economic freedom (levels of
personal choice, ability to enter markets, security of privately
owned property, rule of law, etc.).

Bulgaria's result this year is 7.29 points out of the maximum
10, a slight increase compared to 2013 when it had 7.28 points
and was ranked 49th. The higher ranking is due to the fact that
other countries are lagging behind, not to a symbolic
improvement of Bulgaria's result, the Institute of Market
Economy said. In the European Union the results of the countries
vary from 7.84 points for Finland (10th in the ranking) to 6.57
points for Slovenia (105th). Bulgaria is 21st among the EU
countries, this time rubbing shoulders with Spain which has the
same result./VI/BR