Govt welcomes HK's freest economy tag, regrets speculation

HONG KONG - The Hong Kong government welcomed the city's ranking once again as the world's freest economy in Fraser Institute's annual Economic Freedom of the World report released Thursday.

The Canadian policy think tank's report measures economic freedom - the ability of individuals to make their own economic decisions—by analyzing the policies and institutions of 162 countries and territories. Indicators include regulation, freedom to trade internationally, size of government, property rights, government spending and taxation. Hong Kong topped the first two indicators. The 2020 report is based on data from 2018, the latest year of comparable statistics.

According to this year's report, Hong Kong again ranks first followed by Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland, Australia, the US, Mauritius, Georgia, Canada and Ireland.

Hong Kong has been ranked first since the inception of the report.

"This is an unambiguous recognition of Hong Kong's long-standing and steadfast commitment to building a free economy with a level playing field," a government spokesman said in a statement issued late Thursday.

But the government also expressed regret over the institute's speculation that Hong Kong's rule of law could be undermined by the National Security Law for Hong Kong.

"The rule of law is a fundamental core value of Hong Kong and much cherished by the community. The government, and it's the community as a whole, has been determined to uphold and defend the rule of law," said the spokesman in the statement.

"It is with regret that Fraser Institute pre-empts lower future scores in this area with biased comments and unfair speculations based on selective ungrounded views."