MALAYSIA continues to show improvement in the Economic Freedom of the World Report, jumping seven places from 72 to 65 this year.

However, the country ranks behind its Asean neighbours Singapore (2), the Philippines (39) and Cambodia (63).

Asian economic powerhouses Taiwan, South Korea and Japan placed 31, 32 and 39, respectively, in the list that sees Hong Kong at the top.

The report ranks countries based on the consistency of their institutions and police in promoting economic freedoms, and is published by the Fraser Institute of Canada.

It ranked 159 countries this year.

The report is made up of 42 data points in five areas – size of government; legal system and property rights; access to sound money; freedom to trade internationally; and, regulation.

Besides being ranked, the countries are also broken up into quartiles. Nations in the top quartile had an average per capita gross domestic product of US$42,463 in 2015, the second quartile (US$21,720), the third quartile (US$9,416) and the fourth quartile (US$6,036).

The report stated that the average income of the poorest 10% in the most economically free nations was almost twice the average per capita income in the least free nations.

Life expectancy in the top quartile is 80.7 years, compared with 64.4 years in the lowest quartile.

Malaysia is placed in the second quartile.

The nation’s improved ranking is due to better scores in the “size of government” area, which reflects the scale of government intervention in a country, moving from 6.63 points to 6.93.

There were also improvements in the “regulation” and “access to sound money” areas. “Regulation” tracks a country’s restrictions to businesses, while “access to sound money” relates how well a country has controlled inflation.

While the nation saw a better overall score in “regulation”, with 8.72 points compared with 8.62 a year ago, there was a drop in the “extra payments/bribes/favouritism” sub-category, from 6.29 points to 5.99.

Under “legal system and property rights”, Malaysia saw a slide from 5.87 points to 5.76.

Significantly, the report, which was released on September 28, showed a decline in performance in the sub-categories of “judicial independence” and “impartial courts”.

In “judicial independence”, Malaysia’s 6.59 points in 2014 fell to 6.01, while under “impartial courts”, there was a decline from 6.93 points to 6.67.

This year’s report introduced the World Bank’s gender disparity index (GDI) and adjusted the countries’ rankings according to the legal barriers imposed on women that may impede their abilities in formal economic activity.

On this score, Malaysia’s overall ranking dropped 14 spots, from 51 to 65, on account of GDI.

Malaysia remains one of the 19 countries in the report where women are legally required to obey their husbands or are prohibited from working outside the home without their husbands’ permission. – October 4, 2017.