US drops two spots in World Bank’s ranking of best places to do business

The U.S. dropped two spots in the World Bank’s annual ranking of the best places to do business in the world.

According to The Wall Street Journal, America fell to eighth place in the ranking, which measures the ease with which people can do business in a given country.

The U.S. scored 54th on its process of getting electricity and 50th on protections for small shareholders in businesses.

{mosads}It also received poor marks for its 15-day process of registering property at 38th place and for its difficulty of paying taxes at 37th. 

While the U.S. dropped slightly, the top three ranked countries – New Zealand, Singapore, and Denmark – held their spots for the third year in a row.

Hong Kong and South Korea came in at the fourth and fifth spots respectively, which they have been bouncing between since 2015.

The Journal notes that the rankings have come under some criticism as they have gained more prominence internationally. 

Some of the most notable criticism has come from World Bank’s former chief economist Paul Romer, who left earlier in 2018 after expressing worries that the changing methodology of the report let staff unfairly raise and lower countries’ rankings.