Taiwan has placed 14th on a list of the world’s most economically free countries. That’s according to new rankings released by US-based think tank The Heritage Foundation.
Taiwan rose three places in the rankings this year. The country’s score was 75.1, 1.2 points higher than last year. This is Taiwan’s best ranking in the past 5 years.
The Index measures 10 freedoms including property rights, labor freedom, trade freedom, investment freedom, entrepreneurship and fiscal freedom.
Taiwan saw improvements in seven of the 10 economic freedoms, led by investment freedom, control of government spending, and labor freedom.
Taiwan’s score was the fifth-best in the Asia-Pacific region, following Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia. Taiwan’s score is higher than Japan and South Korea and well above the world average.
The report said, “Prudent macroeconomic policy within a stable legal and monetary environment has been the key to rising levels of economic freedom over the past five years.” It also said Taiwan’s structural reforms and openness to global commerce have enabled it to advance far. Taiwan has seen uninterrupted years of growth in economic freedom since 2009.