Processing .....please wait.. 
The article has been forwarded.... 
India more economically unfree than last year
By agencies
|
Thursday, 05 January 2006, 20:30 IST
NEW DELHI: India has fallen 36 places to 121 in the 2006 annual index of economic freedom released by The Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal.
While Indias index score improved by 0.04 points to 3.49, many others including Indias archrival Pakistan scored better.
Hong Kong was the freest country followed by Singapore with index scores of 1.28 and 1.56, respectively. Pakistan improved its score the most in the study covering 157 countries. With its score going up by 0.4 points, it jumped ahead of India to rank 110.
Last year, Pakistan was ranked 95. Sri Lanka (93), China, at 111 also slipped in rankings by 27 places.
India's poor ranking is despite the equity markets surging to record highs, FII inflows of over $10 billion, a robust GDP growth of 7 percent plus and foreigners funding the corporate sector to the tune of $18 billion in 2005.
The study said trade policy, banking and finance sector, regulation and transparency were the categories that hampered India's progress. Monetary policy, which is measured by average decadal inflation rate, was cited as the category where India did best.