Major Taiwanese news source Liberty Times Network (LTN) recently reported that the U.S. think tank The Heritage Foundation released its 2022 Economic Freedom Index report. A total of 184 countries in the world were included in the evaluation. For the first time, Taiwan won the rank of the sixth in the world and third in the Asia-Pacific region. The Heritage Foundation report noted that this year’s Economic Freedom Index showed that the global economy remained “moderately free” overall, but the average index was 60, down 1.6 points from last year. Singapore remains the most economically free, but the top 10 countries have changed significantly. Following Singapore, the other nine countries in the top ten are Switzerland, Ireland, New Zealand, Luxembourg, Taiwan, Estonia, Netherlands, Finland and Denmark. In authoritarianism, China’s economic freedom is virtually non-existent, and Hong Kong was removed from the index in 2021 due to increasing Chinese influence and interference. Taiwan’s economic freedom score is 80.1, ranking 6th in the 2022 Economic Freedom Index. In the past five years, Taiwan has been one of the few countries in the world with sustained economic growth. Due to the improvement of judicial efficiency and labor freedom, Taiwan scored high overall. The Heritage Foundation report suggests that, if business freedom and financial freedom can be further improved, a higher degree of Taiwan’s economic freedom can be achieved.
Source: LTN, February 15, 2022
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/breakingnews/3829893