African Economies Make Consistent Progress in Improving Business Regulation, Report Finds

Washington, D.C., October 23, 2012A new report by IFC and the World Bank finds that of the 50 economies making the most improvement in business regulation for domestic firms since 2005, 17 are in Sub-Saharan Africa. This years report marks the 10^th edition of the global Doing Businessreport series and over the life of the report, Africa has consistently recorded a high number of reforms. Rwanda particularly stands out as having consistently improved since 2005. A case study in this years report features Rwanda, which since 2005 has implemented 26 regulatory reforms as recorded by Doing Business.

The report, Doing Business 2013: Smarter Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises, finds that from June 2011 to June 2012, 28 of 46 governments in Sub-Saharan Africa implemented at least one regulatory reform making it easier to do businessa total of 44 reforms. Burundi, with four reforms, ranks among the 10 economies worldwide that improved the most in the past year across three or more areas measured by Doing Businessthe only low-income economy on the list.

Yet despite those achievements, much more can be done to enable African economies to build a strong and competitive private sector. The regions average ranking on the ease of doing business is 140 out of 185. Mauritius and South Africa are the only African economies among the top 40 in the global ranking.

Doing Business is about smart business regulations, not necessarily fewer regulations, said Augusto Lopez-Claros, Director, Global Indicators and Analysis, World Bank Group. We are very encouraged that so many economies in Africa are among the 50 that have made the most improvement since 2005 as captured by the Doing Business indicators.

African economies that have improved the most since then include Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Mali, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Burundi, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Angola, Mauritius, Madagascar, Mozambique, Côte dIvoire, Togo, Niger, Nigeria, and São Tomé and Príncipe.

Globally, Singapore tops the global ranking on the ease of doing business for the seventh consecutive year. Joining it on the list of the 10 economies with the most business-friendly regulation are Hong Kong SAR, China; New Zealand; the United States; Denmark; Norway; the United Kingdom; the Republic of Korea; Georgia; and Australia.

About the Doing Business report series

Doing Business analyzes regulations that apply to an economys businesses during their life cycle, including start-up and operations, trading across borders, paying taxes, and protecting investors. The aggregate ease of doing business rankings are based on 10 indicators and cover 185 economies. Doing Business does not measure all aspects of the business environment that matter to firms and investors. For example, it does not measure the quality of fiscal management, other aspects of macroeconomic stability, the level of skills in the labor force, or the resilience of financial systems. Its findings have stimulated policy debates worldwide and enabled a growing body of research on how firm-level regulation relates to economic outcomes across economies. This years report marks the 10^th edition of the global Doing Business report series. For more information about the Doing Business report series, please visit www.doingbusiness.org. Join us on Facebook.

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