Bulgaria 38th in World Bank’s Doing Business 2015 rankings

Bulgaria places 38th out of 189 economies in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2015 rankings, having dropped two places in the past year.

The report measures the ease of doing business in 189 economies based on 11 business-related regulations, including business start-up, getting credit, getting electricity, and trading across borders. The report does not cover the full breadth of business concerns, such as security, macroeconomic stability, or corruption.

world bank doing business bulgaria

Singapore tops the list of business-friendly economies globally, while five of the top 10 most improved countries are in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the World Bank Group’s Doing Business 2015 rankings.

The 12th annual report finds that the 10 economies with the most business-friendly regulatory environments are Singapore; New Zealand; Hong Kong SAR, China;Denmark; the Republic of Korea; Norway; the United States; the United Kingdom;Finland; and Australia.

The 10 economies that have improved the most since the previous year areTajikistan, Benin, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Trinidad and Tobago, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Azerbaijan, Ireland, and the United Arab Emirates.

Sub-Saharan African countries had the highest number of regulatory reforms — 75 of 230 around the world — while emerging Europe and Central Asia had the highest percentage of improving countries.

Eighty-five per cent of economies in Europe and Central Asia implemented at least one regulatory reform aimed at making it easier for local entrepreneurs to do business in 2013/14, a larger percentage than in any other region.

In the past year, economies in Europe and Central Asia further improved the regulatory environment for local entrepreneurs, adding to the gains recorded in the past decade. For example, 10 years ago, starting a new business took a Macedonian entrepreneur 48 days. Today, the process can be completed in two days.

“Economies in Europe and Central Asia have consistently led the world in the pace of regulatory reform,” said Rita Ramalho, Doing Business report lead author, World Bank Group.

“Governments’ commitment to improving the regulatory environment for entrepreneurs has allowed them to close the gap with the top performers in some areas. For example, the average time to register property in the region has fallen by 14 days since 2010, making the process faster than in OECD high-income economies.”

Progress was uneven in the Middle East and North Africa, with conflict-affected Syria near the bottom. South Asia saw the lowest number of reforms.

While 80 per cent of countries in the study improved their business regulations last year, only about one-third moved up in the rankings. However, the gap between the best- and worst-performing countries continues to narrow as countries improve their business climates, said Rita Ramalho, manager of the Doing Business Project.

“It’s easier to do business this year than it was last year, than it was two years ago or 10 years ago,” she said. “We see that the economies that score the lowest are reforming more intensely, so they are converging toward the economies that do the best.”

For example, in 2005 it took an average of 235 days to transfer property in the lowest-ranked countries and 42 days in the top-ranked countries — a difference of 193 days. The gap now has narrowed to 62 days (around 90 days for the lowest-ranked and less than 40 for the top-ranked).

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