NEW YORK (Yonhap News) ― The world ranking of South Korea’s economic freedom dropped by three notches this year, an international report said Thursday, citing the country’s corruption problems as hurting “equity” and “trust” in the government.

According to the report jointly compiled by the U.S. think tank Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, South Korea came in 34th out of 177 countries in terms of economic freedom, down from 31st last year. It also ranked 8th out of 41 Asia-Pacific countries.

Economic freedom is defined as the “fundamental right of every human to control his or her own labor and property” and is measured in four broad categories including rule of law, regulatory efficiency and market openness, the report said.