Malta places first in personal freedom in business
In a ranking of 153 countries by Forbes, Malta was ranked 38th in terms of business friendliness. Analysts comments that such a result was impressive considering the fact that Malta was the smallest economy within the Eurozone. In the same ranking Malta ranked 1st in personal freedom, 17th in trade freedom, 35th in monetary freedom, 29th in property rights, 38th in innovation, 22nd in technology, 87th in red tape and 49th in investor protection.
In drafting the ranking, a number of different reports where taken into consideration including the World Bank’s Doing Business Report and the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Competitiveness Report.
Malta’s economic growth was also noted in drafting up the said ranking. In the third quarter of 2017 Malta’s economy registered an impressive growth of 7.2% when compared to the corresponding period in 2016.
In the Forbes ranking the United Kingdom topped the list for the first time, up from fifth place last year. Interestingly according to the Autumn Economic Forecast published by the European Commission in November 2017 the relocation of financial services operators from London as a result of Brexit could boost Malta’s GDP, particular in 2019.
At the other end of the scale the bottom worst ranked in the Forbes ranking where Libya, Afghanistan, Haiti, Gambia and Chad.
