14 February 2008

New Zealand has been ranked sixth in the world in the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal’s annual Index of Economic Freedom for 2008.

 The top seven countries – Hong Kong, Singapore, Ireland, Australia, the US, New Zealand, and Canada – are considered ‘free’, with rankings between 80 and 100.

 New Zealand rates highest in the world on business freedom (thanks to a speedy 12 days on average to set up a business, against a world average of 43 days) and also scores very highly in a number of other categories.

 “New Zealand rates highly in almost all areas of economic freedom but is most impressive in financial freedom, property rights, business, labour, and freedom from corruption,” the report states.

The index measures 10 categories of economic freedom. Visit http://www.heritage.org/Index/countries.cfm to find out more.