8/11/2012: World Bank Doing Business 2013 report

Last night I posted in the data from the World Bank Doing Business 2013 report (link here).

More from World Bank Doing Business Report for 2013:

In the above, SOEs are 21 advanced Small Open Economies that Ireland competes with.

The folowing things jump out:

1. Ireland scores very positively overall in the sub group, ranking the country at 4th best to do business in this group of peer economies. We perform well in Getting Credit (see caveat below), Protecting Investors (another caveat below), Paying Taxes (third caveat below), Resolving (business) insolvency, Starting a Business and enforcing Contracts. We perform poorly-to-horrendously in categories relating to market regulation (Dealing with Construction Permits, Getting Electricity Permits, and Registering Property) and poorly in core exports-linked category of Trading Across Borders.
2. According to the World Bank metric, Ireland ranks as 2nd in the group of Small Open Economies in Getting Credit (business)... unchanged 2006-2013. Let me get this straight: the country experiences wholesale collapse of its banking sector, so spectacular it makes the Government insolvent virtually overnight and is unprecedented in historical terms according to researchers like Carmen Reinhart, our private sector credit contracts dramatically and remains unavailable to SMEs and consumers, Irish banks are now the biggest mess in modern economic history... and World Bank thinks our 'Getting Credit' situation has not changed since 2006 when Ireland was at a height of credit boom?
3. According to the World Bank rankings, Ireland is a much better platform for carry trade and other speculative investment than it is for exporting. This should really, really, really be of some concern to Irish Government, no?
4. After more than 15 years of incessant talk about reforming our energy sector, Irish electricity market remains in the dark ages. As our competitors improve their own domestic energy supply systems, we are sliding in ranking.
5. Despite a wholesale collapse in property markets activity, building and registering property in Ireland still requires navigating a medieval level of bureaucracy. One would have thought that the Government can sort this out. Do note that the improvement (in 2013 rankings) in Registering Property rank is due to 2012 tax incentives passed in the Budget 2012 and expiring in 2013.