Economy Still

[johnrxx99]

http://www.bworldonline.com/BW011409/content.php?id=001THE PHILIPPINES REMAINS in the bottom half of an annual economic freedom ranking, with Washington-based think tank The Heritage Foundation classifying the economy as "mostly unfree" due to corruption, foreign investment barriers, red tape, and weaknesses in the judicial system. In the 2009 Index of Economic Freedom released yesterday, the Philippine economy was ranked as the 104^th freest out of 183 countries and 20^th freest out of 41 Asia Pacific states. The country scored 56.8 on a scale of zero to 100, up 0.8 percentage points from last year and below the world average of 59.5. Neighbors which scored better were Singapore, second overall with 87.1, Japan (19^th, 72.8), Taiwan (35^th, 69.5), South Korea (40^th, 68.1), Malaysia (58^th, 64.6), and Thailand (67^th, 63). The Philippines ranked higher than Cambodia (106^th, 56.6), India (123^rd, 54.4), Indonesia (131^st, 53.4), China (132^nd, 53.2), Vietnam (145^th, 51), Laos (150^th, 50.4), and Burma (176^th, 37.7). Countries whose scores were close to the Philippines included Yemen (56.9), Brazil (56.7), and Algeria, Zambia, and Serbia (all with 56.6). Topping this year