Economic Freedom: Philippines Gains on Regulatory Improvements

At last some genuine good news for the Philippines.

According to the latest Heritage Foundation study on the state of world’s economic freedom 2012 Index of Economic Freedom, regulatory efficiency has significantly improved to nudge our ranking up from last year’s 115 to 107.

Here’s the Heritage,

The Philippines’ economic freedom score is 57.1, making its economy the 107th freest in the 2012 Index. Its score is 0.9 point higher than last year, with a significant improvement in business freedom. The Philippines ranks 19th out of 41 countries in the Asia–Pacific region, and its overall score is slightly below the world and regional averages.

Despite the challenging global economic environment, the Philippine economy has been on a steady path of economic expansion. The government has pursued a series of legislative reforms to enhance the entrepreneurial environment and develop a stronger private sector to generate broader-based job growth. Overall progress has been gradual, but regulatory efficiency has been notably enhanced. The economy has expanded at an average annual rate of close to 5 percent over the past five years.

There are lingering institutional challenges that will require deeper commitment to reform. Despite some progress, corruption continues to undermine prospects for long-term economic development. The inefficient judiciary, which remains susceptible to political interference, does not provide effective protection for property rights or strong and transparent enforcement of the law

While such improvements should be cheered at, we need broader advances not just in regulatory efficiency, but also in property rights, rule of law, open markets, the size and scale of governments founded on less interventionism.

But in watching mainstream media's penchant for government is the solution to our social problems, and political developments mainly focused on generating approval ratings via controversies, and by my recent experience, count me skeptical of such (statistical based) improvements.