India Slips From 79th Spot To 105th In Global Economic Freedom Index 2020

New Delhi: India has fallen 26 spots to 105th place on the Global Economic Freedom Index 2020.

The annual Economic Freedom of the World report by Canada’s Fraser Institute has been co-released in India with New Delhi-based think tank Centre For Civil Society.

Last year, India occupied the the 79th spot.

Centre for Civil Society president Partha J Shah explained that since the ranking is based on 2018 data, many new restrictions on international trade, tightening of the credit market due to NPAs and COVID-19’s impact on debt and deficits are not reflected in India’s ‘score’.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

* Prospect of increasing economic freedom in India depends on next generation reforms in factor markets and in greater openness to international trade.

* India reported marginal decrease in size of government (from 8.22 to 7.16), legal system and property rights (5.17 to 5.06), freedom to trade internationally (6.08 to 5.71) and regulation of credit, labour and business (6.63 to 6.53). A score closer to 10 indicates a higher level of economic freedom.

* Based on 2018 data, Hong Kong and Singapore once again topped the index, continuing their streak as first and second, respectively.

* India’s ‘consolation’ is that it’s ranked higher than China, which is No. 124.

* New Zealand, Switzerland, US, Australia, Mauritius, Georgia, Canada and Ireland round out the top ten.

The report measures economic freedom (levels of personal choice, ability to enter markets, security of privately owned property, rule of law, among others) by analysing policies and institutions of 162 countries and territories.