Macau’s overall score in the Heritage Foundation’s 2011 Report on the Index of Economic Freedom has slightly improved. The territory’s score increased by 0.6 to 73.1, making the SAR the 19th freest among 179 economies with assigned scores worldwide, up one place from a year earlier. Macau is classified as “mostly free” and is ranked fifth in the Asia-Pacific region, while its overall score is well above the world and regional averages. In the Asia-Pacific region, Macau ranks behind Hong Kong (the world leader for the 17th year running), Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. The study covers economies in different regions across the world, which are assessed against 10 factors of economic freedom. Macau ranks relatively high in factors such as trade freedom, government spending, investment freedom, monetary freedom, fiscal freedom and financial freedom. The Heritage Foundation is a well-known conservative American think-tank based in Washington. According to the Foundation, economic freedom is strongly related to economic performance, and per capita incomes are much higher in societies that are economically free.
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