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Bangladesh has been ranked 141st among 157 countries in the Index of Economic Freedom 2006 published jointly by the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation, a US-based research organisation.
Bangladesh that has able to reduce its overall score by 0.07 point this year secured better score in the monetary policy than the other areas, according to the report that was made available in the website Wednesday.
In the index, Bangladesh that scored 3.88 point was placed in the third of the four categories - Free, Mostly Free, Mostly Unfree and Repressed - in terms of economic freedom.
The annual report surveyed 157 countries, grading property rights protection, the regulatory environment, tax rates, fiscal policy, government intervention in the economy, monetary policy, black markets and trade policy, assigning each a numerical rating.
Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa), Iraq, Serbia and Montenegro and Sudan have been marked as unrated.
Each country falls into one of four categories--free, mostly free, mostly unfree and repressed.
As lower score signifies better position, Hong Kong has been ranked first in the index and it scored 1.28 points, followed by Singapore with 1.56 points and Ireland with 1.58 points.
These three countries are among the 19 countries that dubbed as free and placed in the first category.
Among the SAARC countries, Sri Lanka has obtained a better position and shared the 92nd position with Romania with a score of 3.19. Pakistan has been ranked 110th with 3.33 points, India has been ranked 121st position with 3.49 points while Nepal has been 125th position with 3.53 points.
Bhutan and the Maldives were not included in the list.
All the SAARC member nations were placed in the third category--mostly unfree economically.
According to the report, Bangladesh scored 2.0 points in monetary policy, 3.0 point in wages and prices, 3.3 point in fiscal burden, 4.0 points each in government intervention, foreign investment, banking & finance and property rights, 4.5 points in informal market with 4.5 points and 5.0 points in trade policy.
The fiscal burden score is 0.2 point better, and the banking and finance score is 0.1 point better and the government intervention score is 1.0 point worse this year. As a result, Bangladesh's overall score improved by 0.07 point, according to the report.
"Overall, weak rule of law-manifesting itself in some of the world's worst official corruption, civil crime, and political violence-continues to burden Bangladesh's democracy, and the government's simplistic policy solutions have made the situation worse," the report said.
Bangladesh imposes a number of prohibitions and restrictions on imports, and corruption also serves as a non-tariff barrier, it said.
"Business people consider Bangladesh Customs to be…a thoroughly corrupt organisation in which officials routinely exert their power to influence the tariff value of imports and expedite or delay import and export processing at the ports," it said quoting the US Department of Commerce reports.
"Banks, insurance companies, and financial institutions are taxed at a higher rate (45 percent) than are other corporations (30 percent). Two nationalised companies dominate the insurance sector, although private competition is permitted," it said.
The government, it said, attempted to boost law enforcement by involving the military, which formed the Rapid Action Battalion, attacking suspected criminals and inflicting numerous abuses including extra-judicial murder, torture, and disappearances but not measurably reducing crime or corruption.
It said the chaos of a lawless society has added to other problems keeping economic growth to roughly 5 percent annually, substantially below the 8 percent needed for appreciable development.
"Until the government addresses Bangladesh's many structural weaknesses, there is little reason for optimism about the country's future," it observed.
About Bangladesh democracy, the report said democracy continues to progress, albeit slowly. Voters unseated the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) in favor of the Awami League (AL) in the 1996 elections.
The BNP returned to power in the 2001 elections, but the AL is expected to win the elections scheduled for October 2006, it added.
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