Singapore third on globalisation index

Singapore is third in a ranking of the world's most globalised economies, trailing Hong Kong and Ireland.

The Ernst Young's Globalisation Index 2010 found that the Republic continued to perform strongly in terms of openness to trade and capital movements, with improvements also seen in cultural integration.

Singapore posted reduced scores, however, in the areas of labour and technology compared with the year before - when it had claimed top spot in the index's inaugural 2009 survey.

The index measures the world's largest 60 economies according to their degree of globalisation relative to their economic output or gross domestic product. It has five criteria: openness to trade, capital movements, exchange of technology and ideas, labour movements and cultural integration.