Hong Kong drops to No.2 spot in global economic freedom ranking

Improvement in its size of government boosted Singapore in the rankings.

Hong Kong is no longer the freest economy in the world. 

Based on the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World 2023 report, Hong Kong’s overall score dropped 0.25 points to 8.55, losing the top spot to Singapore.

Singapore, which rose to the number spot, recorded a 0.06 point increase in its overall score.

Economies were scored based on five areas: size of government, legal system and property rights, sound and money, freedom to trade internationally, and regulation.

Hong Kong received scores of 7.92, 7.58, 9.57, 9.04, and 8.64 in the five areas, respectively.

Frasers Institute underscored that Hong Kong’s rating has fallen 0.64 points since its peak rating of 9.19 in 2010.

“In just the last two years, Hong Kong’s rating has fallen by a whopping 0.40 points. How much of that decline is related to China’s economic and political crackdown in Hong Kong and how much is related to the coronavirus pandemic is difficult to discern, but we do note that the decline in Hong Kong’s rating in recent years has been much larger than the world’s average decline,” the institute said.

“It seems reasonable to assume that much of this decline is related to China’s new harsh policies in Hong Kong and is not entirely the fault of pandemic policies,” it added.