Bulgaria Slips in Global 'Doing Business' Index

Summary of Doing Business 2012 data for Bulgaria. Photo by World Bank

Bulgaria has been ranked 59th among 183 countries in the Doing Business 2012 report, compiled by the International Finance Corp (IFC), the World Bank's private-sector lender.

Bulgaria was placed 51st in the Doing Business 2010 and 2011 ranking, which indicates the business environment in the country is deteriorating. Bulgaria has moved up and down in comparison to other countries in 9 of the total of 10 sub-indexes.

The index shows that it has become harder to register a property in Bulgaria, as the country's ranking has dropped 3 places to 66. The protection of investors has worsened in 2012, according to the ranking, in which Bulgaria is 2 places down in comparison to 2011 and is currently 46th.

The Trading Across Borders and Enforcing Contracts conditions in Bulgaria, however, have improved slightly– to 91st and 87th respectively.

In stark contrast to previous years Bulgaria's sharpest fall is in the Starting a business topic, where the country has slipped 6 places down to 49.

Its worst ranking is in the Dealing with Construction Permits and Getting Electricity categories, where it stands at spot number 128 and 133 respectively.

It takes 23 procedures and 120 days to build a warehouse in Bulgaria with official costs totaling 317% of GDP per capita, the report says.

The Getting Electricity category has been introduced this year in the index to measure the ease or difficulty businesses face in getting an electricity connection.

According to the report in Bulgaria one needs a total of 130 days to obtain a permanent electricity connection. (The measure captures the median duration that the electricity utility and experts indicate is necessary in practice, rather than required by law, to complete a procedure.)

The Paying Taxes index shows that Bulgaria has improved due to the country's tax policy. The total tax rate, which measures the amount of taxes and mandatory contributions payable by the business in the second year of operation, expressed as a share of commercial profits for Bulgaria stands at 28.1% against an average of 40.4% for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Among all 10 topic rankings, Bulgaria's performance is best in Getting Credit - 8th place, with no change in comparison to 2011.

Morocco showed the biggest improvement as a place to do business this year, leading a surge of business-friendly reforms in Africa and Eastern Europe.

The World Bank's annual "Doing Business" report again ranked Singapore as the world's easiest place to do business, followed by Hong Kong, New Zealand, the United States and Denmark.

But South Korea and Iceland broke into the coveted top 10 rankings, edging out Sweden and Saudi Arabia.

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