Finance officials said on Tuesday the Philippines should do better at the 2020 ranking of countries under the index of economic freedom released each year by the Heritage Foundation.

At the current or 2019 IEF, the Philippines fell nine notches lower to 70th position in the annual exercise conducted by the US-based foundation.

“For index year 2019, the (Heritage) Foundation ranks the Philippines 70th out of 186 economies. This is nine notches down from the rank in index year 2018,” Finance Undersecretary Gil S. Beltran said.

According to him, the lower rating resulted from the drag brought about by the reduction in the country’s score in 10 sub-indices tracked closely by the foundation.

He expressed his optimism that the Philippines will achieve a better ranking in the upcoming exercises as economic reforms are in put in place.

“For index year 2020, the country’s score is expected to improve significantly. The signing of the Personal Property Act will improve the score on property rights. The signing of the rice quota tariffication bill into law will also reduce the penalty for non-tariff barriers in the computation of trade freedom index,” Beltran said.

“We recognize that government should not stand in the way of private sector participation in the economy. That is why TradeNet.ph, for example, should already be made operational to cut red tape in the processing of trade-related documents by 76 trade regulatory agencies,” he added.

The IEF rating was conducted by the Heritage Foundation, an American conservative think tank which calculates the rating via 12 quantitative and qualitative factors grouped into four broad categories: rule of law, government size, regulatory efficiency and open markets.