Singapore's economic freedom has been trailing Hong Kong's for 26 years

It also reported lower scores in government size and legal & property rights system.

Singapore has stayed behind Hong Kong since 1990 in terms of economic freedom, but it still has the second most free economy in the world, Canadian think tank Fraser Institute revealed.

According to the latest data in its report, Singapore scored 8.84 points, slightly trailing behind Hong Kong’s 8.97 points. The current score is also lower compared to nearly 10 years ago when the city earned 8.91 points.

Compared to 2015 data, Singapore scored lower in terms of the size of its government (7.92 points) due to weakened government consumption.

The city’s legal & property rights system also weakened (8.23 points) compared to last year, as scores for the impartiality of its courts and the business costs of crime dipped.

Notably, Singapore’s ratings for its sound money also fell to 9.76 points no thanks to lower money growth, and standard deviation of inflation.

On the upside, Singapore gained more points in its freedom to trade internationally (9.29 points) due to improved scores for its tariffs, regulatory trade barriers, and the control of its capital and people.

Singapore showed the most improvement with its regulatory framework, as its score went up from 8.82 points in 2015 to 8.98 points in the latest year 2016. Large leaps were seen in the ratings for its regulations in the labour market (from 7.21 to 7.67 points).