China lagged behind Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia and Hong Kong, the latter of which has remained a high proficiency economy over the past three years.
What does “latter” refer to?
Thanks.
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Probably Hong Kong. I don’t like to use “the latter” because it can lead to confusion. Why not repeat “Hong Kong” to avoid the confusion: China lagged behind Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia and Hong Kong, with Hong Kong remaining a highly efficient economy over the past three years.
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When I read a sentence like this, I often have to go back and take a second look at the list to see which item was last.
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I’m not sure if it was clear that “latter” always refers to the last item in the list. Or the most recently mentioned item. It always refers to a list already mentioned, not one that will be mentioned in the future.
I most commonly see this when there are only two items, but there is nothing wrong with using it with longer lists.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who pauses to think if I want to use the word later or latter. 
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China lagged behind Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia and Hong Kong, the latter of which has remained a high proficiency economy over the past three years.
This not a clear and correct sentence. We may infer that the speaker means one country from his use of the verb in: … Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia and Hong Kong, the latter of which has remained and if so, the only country can be Hongkong. But the use of latter is not appropriate while it should have been the last.
(China lagged behind Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia and Hong Kong, the last of which has remained a high proficiency economy over the past three years.)
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