Romania ranks 36th out of 190 economies assessed in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2017 ranking, up from 37th in last year’s ranking.

According to the World Bank’s comparable data, Romania has made little progress over the past year and its score only increased by 0.14 points (from 74.12 to 74.26). According to the new methodology used this year, Romania was 35th last year. Thus, Romania actually lost a position instead of gaining one.

Romania lost nine places compared to last year based on the Starting a Business indicator, going down from 51st to 62nd. "Romania has made starting a business more difficult by increasing the time required to register for VAT", reads the World Bank report.

However, Romania made some progress in terms of Paying Taxes, and ranks 50th on this chapter, up from 54th last year. This is mainly due to the tax cuts.

Getting Credit is one of the indicators for which Romania ranks best (7th) while Getting Electricity is still the country’s weak spot, Romania ranking 134th on this indicator. Romania has also made no progress in dealing with Construction Permits, for which it ranks 95th.

Overall, Romania ranks better than several countries in the region, including Bulgaria, ranked 39th, and Hungary - 41th, and surpasses several bigger countries as well, such as Russia (40), Belgium (42), Italy (50), Turkey (69), and China (78). However, it is behind countries such as Poland (24), the Czech Republic (27), Slovenia (33), and Kazakhstan (35). Macedonia is the country in the region where it’s easiest to do business and 10th in the overall ranking.

New Zealand has surpassed Singapore and is first in the ease of doing business 2017 ranking. Denmark is third, Hong Kong went up to 4th, and South Korea if 5th. Meanwhile, Somalia is the worst country for business in the world.

Doing Business provides an aggregate ranking on the ease of doing business based on indicator sets that measure and benchmark regulations applying to domestic small to medium-size businesses through their life cycle. The report looks at policy areas impacting 10 areas including starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and resolving insolvency.

The full Doing Business 2017 report can be found here. For comparison, the Doing Business 2016 is available here.

A detailed economy profile on Romania is available here.

Romania drops nine places in Global Competitiveness Report

editor@romania-insider.com