The shift by the U.S. and Britain toward more protectionist trade and immigration policies isn't hurting their reputation as places to do business, according to a new ranking from the World Bank.

The U.S. moved up two positions to sixth in the development lender's rankings of 190 countries based on ease of doing business, while the U.K. retained its spot in seventh place, the World Bank said in its "Doing Business 2018" report released Tuesday.

New Zealand took the top place for the second straight year, followed by Singapore, Denmark, South Korea and Hong Kong. Macedonia dropped out of the top 10, while Georgia jumped into ninth spot. Among the top 20 ranked economies, the former Soviet republic has enacted the most business-friendly reforms since the World Bank started tracking them in 2003, according to the report.

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Thought leadership on regulatory changes, economic trends, corporate success stories, and tactical solutions for treasurers, CFOs, risk managers, controllers, and other finance professionals
  • Informative weekly newsletter featuring news, analysis, real-world cas studies, and other critical content
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.