MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

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

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