MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, March 29th 2024 - 10:12 UTC

 

 

Mercosur countries rank poorly in Forbes’ “Best Countries for Business”

Thursday, October 6th 2011 - 21:14 UTC
Full article 6 comments
The best ranked in Latam in Chile, 24 The best ranked in Latam in Chile, 24

Mercosur full members (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) rank poorly in the Forbes magazine annual Best Countries for Business, with the best listed, Chile and Peru, in positions 24 and 42, out of 134 countries surveyed worldwide.

In Latin America and the Caribbean behind Peru come Trinidad Tobago (49), Mexico (57), Panama (60) and Uruguay, 61.
Colombia figures in position 62; Paraguay, 85; Brazil, 89; Argentina, 95, Nicaragua, 111; Ecuador, 114; Bolivia, 123 and Venezuela, 130.

The Best Country for Business is Canada followed by New Zealand, Hong Kong, Ireland, Denmark, Singapore, Sweden, Norway, UK and the US. In the tail of the list are Burundi, Zimbabwe and Chad.

While the US is paralyzed by fears of a double-dip recession and Europe struggles with sovereign debt issues, Canada’s economy has held up better than most. The 1.6 trillion dollars economy is the ninth biggest in the world and grew 3.1% last year. It is expected to expand 2.4% in 2011, according to the Royal Bank of Canada.

The Best Countries for Business are determined by looking at 11 different factors: property rights, innovation, taxes, technology, corruption, freedom (personal, trade and monetary), red tape, investor protection and stock market performance.

Forbes leaned on research and published reports from the Central Intelligence Agency, Freedom House, Heritage Foundation, Property Rights Alliance, Transparency International, the World Bank and World Economic Forum to compile the rankings.

The performance of Mercosur countries according to Forbes ranking:

                                                                                         Argentina  Brazil  Paraguay Uruguay  Chile

Trade Freedom                                                               114             112         52                  52           8
Monetary Freedom                                                       126               66         25                  90         47
Property Rights                                                                 84               61      114                  42          27
Innovation                                                                           73              34      119                  62           41
Technology                                                                         60                51      106                45           42
Red Tape                                                                              112              99         82               109          49
Investor Protection                                                          92              59         46                 76            27
Corruption                                                                            88              59         119               23            20
Personal Freedom                                                             42             42           63                   1                1
Tax Burden                                                                        104             112          77                 114         35   

Market Performance                                                        26               69          NA               NA          53
 

Categories: Economy, Politics, Latin America.
Tags: Forbes, Latam, Mercosur.

Top Comments

Disclaimer & comment rules
  • GeoffWard2

    Well, we could discuss the tables for the rest of the year!
    http://www.forbes.com/lists/2011/6/best-countries-11_rank.html

    UR & CH: two countries in the world with the Greatest Personal
    Freedom (the same score as the UK)
    AR: Market Performance massively better than BR.
    AR & BR: Two of the last placed to deal with if you want Free Trade.
    etc,
    etc.

    These worldwide comparisons are the wake-up call for those that think things are good.

    Argentina: bottom quartile in the world on half the criteria, 5/10
    Brasil: bottom quartile in the world for a third of the criteria, 3/10
    Paraguay: bottom quartile in the world for 4/10 criteria.
    Uruguay: bottom quartile in the world for 2/10 criteria.
    c.f.
    Chile: every criteria in the top two quartiles.

    . . . . . and the bottom quartile contains some REAL 'basket cases'.

    Oct 07th, 2011 - 09:07 pm 0
  • Fido Dido

    “AR & BR: Two of the last placed to deal with if you want Free Trade”

    because both nations know damn well that the “Free Trade” that is being lectured in the so called advanced nations is bogus. Even here in the US, they finally figure that out now that it's “Free Trade for the corporations that doesn't benefit the population at all”.

    Oct 08th, 2011 - 04:09 pm 0
  • Think

    TWIMC
    I clearly remember that some short 13 years ago, Forbes Magazine ranked Argentina as the “Best Country for Business” in Latin-America…………

    “Best Country for Business” according to Forbes……………
    “Worst Country for 80% of us, Argentineans” according to history……..

    I rather prefer the Argentina of today.

    Oct 08th, 2011 - 06:12 pm 0
Read all comments

Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!