Economic freedom index 2021: Hong Kong drops off list for first time

Hong Kong (CNN Business) Hong Kong has been booted off an index of economic freedom that it used to lead, dealing another blow to the city’s standing as a global business hub. On Wednesday, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, revealed its annual ranking of the world’s freest economies, leaving the former British colony off the list. The organization said that it was counting the city, as well as Macao — another Chinese-controlled special administrative region — as part of China, following a change in its methodology that means the index will only rank “independent countries where governments…