EDITORIAL - Still middling

It’s an improvement from 115th place, but being ranked 107th out of 179 is still not much to crow about. That’s the country’s latest ranking in the 2012 Index of World Economic Freedom, which is drawn up by the Washington-based conservative think-tank Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal.

The index is based on 10 categories: government spending; property rights; freedom from corruption; and freedom in terms of labor, business, trade, investment as well as monetary, fiscal and financial matters. The Philippines improved its scores in business freedom, labor freedom, monetary freedom and fiscal freedom, with an overall score of 57.1, but saw its scores slip in government spending and trade freedom. Its scores were also unchanged in property rights, investment and financial freedom as well as the principal advocacy of the Aquino administration, freedom from corruption, where the country scored a low 24.0.

At 107th place, the Philippines ranked 19th out of 41 economies in the Asia-Pacific. Its overall score was lower than the regional average of 57.5 and global average of 59.5. For the 18th straight year, Hong Kong and Singapore maintained their first and second rankings in the index, respectively. Behind them were Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Canada, Chile, Mauritius, Ireland and the United States.

The report noted steady economic expansion and progress although gradual in the Philippines. But the index tracks the results of other international surveys and comparative studies on the performance of the world’s economies, which place the Philippines in the lower half and behind most of its Asian neighbors. The latest index should serve as a challenge for the administration to speed up reforms that will promote job-generating investments and make the economy more competitive.