The index, produced annually in conjunction with the International Air Transport Association, is a global ranking of countries according to the travel freedom that their citizens enjoy.

It analyses global visa regulations to present an index ranking each country and territory in the world by the number of countries that their citizens can travel to visa-free.

In this year’s edition, Malaysia trailed behind other Asian countries such as Singapore (joint-fourth), Japan (joint-fifth) and South Korea (joint-seventh).

It shares 13th place with Estonia, with visa-free access to 164 countries or territories.

Last year, Malaysia came in 12th, three spots down from its 2015 ranking of 9th. Its highest ranking was in 2014, at 8th position.

Germany topped the list for the fourth year in a row, with its citizens able to access 177 countries without a visa.

Sweden was second, while Denmark, Finland, Italy, Spain and the US tied for third place.

Singapore shares fourth position with Austria, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway and the UK.

Within Asia, Thailand ranked 67th with visa-free access to 71 countries. Philippines came in 75th, Indonesia was 79th and Myanmar was 93rd.

Afghanistan took last place (104th) with its citizens able to access only 24 countries without a visa.