Economics: Doing Business Easier
The World Bank’s annual “Doing Business” report provides us with a means for comparing the ease with which business can be conducted in Mexico relative to other countries in any given year, and for seeing how such conditions have evolved in Mexico over the years.
In its latest Ease of Doing Business Index, Mexico ranked 38th among 189 economies in the world, the country’s highest score since the World Bank began releasing the standings in 2005. It was also four steps higher on the scale than Mexico ranked in last year’s report.
Significant improvements were observed in terms of the time it takes and the costs incurred on average in setting up a new company, and in the number of days needed to obtain construction permits; Mexico scored better than both the Latin American and the OECD averages on both points.
However, the country continued to lag averages on topics related to property registries, such as the time needed to register property or a new business, and dealing with construction permits, all of which have a direct effect on direct investment, depending on the extent to which they contribute to a greater sense of business certainty and proper protection of intellectual property rights.
In this week’s issue we analyze five of the World Bank categories that are regarded as the most important in making the country more competitive in recent years such, as well as in which the country has the greatest opportunities for further improvement: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property and paying taxes.
In other economic news, Mexico’s Global Index of Labor Productivity in the Mexican Economy (IGPLE) for the first quarter of 2016 showed a 1.5% improvement in relation to the same quarter of 2015 when adjusted to correct for seasonal factors. Significant improvements in productivity were recorded in the primary (+3.6% yoy) and tertiary (+2.8% yoy) sectors, with the most significant gains in the latter sector recorded in non financial services (5.4% YoY) and retail sales (3.4% YoY). Even as productivity in the secondary sector fell 3.7%, in the construction sector it rose 1.9%, while manufacturing productivity declined 1.1%.
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