Forbes Magazine has again ranked Denmark as the best country for business in their global league table ”Best Countries for Business”, for the second year in a row. Forbes has been publishing the Best Country list for a decade, and Denmark has ranked first in six of the 10 annual editions.
The Best Countries for Business are determined by grading 144 nations on 11 different factors: property rights, innovation, taxes, technology, corruption, freedom (personal, trade and monetary), red tape, investor protection and stock market performance. Each category is equally weighted. The data comes from reports from recognised organisations: Freedom House, Heritage Foundation, Property Rights Alliance, Transparency International, World Bank Group and World Economic Forum.
In the ranking, New Zealand and Norway emerged as second and third best countries respectively. European countries represent two-thirds of the top 25 countries in 2015. One of the biggest decliners in the rankings is the US, which slides four spots to number 22. This continues a six-year descent since 2009 when the US ranked second overall.
The study shows that while the US may be the financial capital of the world and have its largest economy at $17.4 trillion, but it scores poorly on monetary freedom and bureaucracy/red tape. Forbes notes that more than 150 new major regulations have been added since 2009 at a cost of $70 billion, according to figures provided by the Heritage Foundation.
The UK and Japan both moved up three spots to number 10 and Number 23 respectively this year. Germany improved two places to number 18. China rose from number 97 to number 94, with its ranking held back by low scores on personal and monetary freedom, as well as investor protection and red tape.
The bottom of this list includes a number of emerging markets restrained by high levels of corruption and little freedom. Chad replaces Guinea in last place, a spot Guinea held for three straight years. Chad scored in the bottom five in five of the 11 criteria used by Forbes. The rest of the bottom five includes Guinea, Libya, Haiti and Burma.
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