Greece Slumps In Global Competitiveness

Greece ranked 100th place in its global competitiveness compared to the 101st position the previous year, according to the results of the annual World Bank Group “Doing Business Report 2012” announced recently.

The categorization resulted from a score in a series of individual indicators monitored by the running annual competitiveness survey titled “Doing Business,” which rated 183 countries from all continents.

According to the report, the difficulties that currently exist in the protection of investors along with tax payments kept Greece’s competitiveness on low levels.

Greece was mentioned to have made only two reforms in 2010/2011 that made it easier for businesses to invest.

In the category “Starting a business,” Greece implemented an electronic platform that interconnected several government agencies. In the “ Paying taxes” category, Greece reduced its corporate income tax rate.

However, Greece showed no progress in the remaining categories: “Dealing with construction permits,” “Getting electricity,” “Registering property,” “Getting credit,” “Protecting investors,” Trading across borders,” “Enforcing contracts” and “Resolving insolvency.”

Greece ranked one place higher in this year’s report (100th place from 101st in 2011) following years of descent on the World Bank list.

Cyprus, on the other hand, ranked 40th place in its global competitiveness compared to 49th position in the previous year.