'India 53rd in economic freedom'

India's ranking in a global economic freedom rating list has improved from 13 notches from 66 last year to 53 this year.

The latest annual report of Economic Freedom Ratings developed by the Frazer Institute has given India a rating of 6.7 out of a possible 10 points. The report seeks to measure the degree to which the policies and institutions of countries are supportive of economic freedom.

While Hong Kong retains its highest ranking of economic freedom with a rating of 8.7, Singapore (8.5), New Zealand (8.2), Switzerland (8.2) and the United States (8.2) occupy the other top five slots in the comparison of 130 countries.

China, with a rating of 5.7, shares the 95th spot along with Bangladesh, Pakistan, Ivory Coast, Ecuador, Morocco and Romania.

The rankings of other large economies are UK (6th rank, 8.1), Canada (8th rank, 8.0), Germany (17th rank, 7.6), Japan (19th rank, 7.5), France (24th rank, 7.3), Italy (45th rank, 6.9), Mexico (60th rank, 6.6), Brazil (88th rank, 5.9) and Russia (102nd rank, 5.6). Zimbabwe ranked last (130th) with a rating of 2.8.

The report uses 38 data points to construct a summary index and measure the degree of economic freedom in five areas "" size of government, legal structure and security of property rights, access to sound money, freedom to trade internationally and regulation of credit, labour and business.

Within these five broad areas are incorporated 21 components, which themselves are made up of further sub components.

On the size of government, India is ranked 7th with a rating of 8.2, while it secures the 44th rank in the area of legal structure and security of property rights with a rating of 6.3.

On access to sound money, it ranks 98th with a rating of 7.0 and on the criteria of freedom to trade internationally, it ranks 82nd with a rating of 6.4.

Regulation of credit, labour and business are subdivided into three further criteria - credit market regulations (5.9, 114th rank), labour market regulations (5.7, 48th rank) and business regulations (4.7, 69th rank). Overall, it gets a rating of 5.4 for the 97th rank in this section.