World Bank adopts new methodology in Doing Business report

AMMAN — Rankings of global economies in the World Bank's Doing Business report have been recalculated in line with new methodology, the team in charge of preparing the annual report told The Jordan Times recently. 

Jordan ranked 113th out of 189 countries in the 2016 Ease of Doing Business report released last week. This marked a drop in six places due to the new methodology; the Kingdom ranked 107th in 2015.

In its full report last year, prior to changes in the assessment approach, Jordan was placed 117th out of 189 economies. 

Responding to The Jordan Times' queries on the drop in rank, the organisation's Washington-based team said rankings for 2015 were recalculated. 

"Previously published 2015 rankings are no longer in use and have been removed from the Doing Business website," the World Bank said in an e-mail to The Jordan Times.

As a result of the new methodology, many economies are seeing a significant change in their global ranking.

To keep the data comparable from one year to another, the recalculated 2015 rankings will replace the rankings computed under the earlier methodology, the international financial institution said. 

Elaborating on the methodology changes, the World Bank team said it introduced improvements in five of the 10 “Doing Business” indicators: Dealing with Construction Permits, Getting Electricity, Enforcing Contracts, Registering Property and Trading across Borders. 

In the Registering Property category, a new index on quality of land administration measures the reliability, transparency and geographic coverage of land administration systems as well as aspects of dispute resolution for land issues. 

Similarly, in Getting Electricity, new measurements include the frequency and duration of power outages as well as power tariffs, in addition to existing measurements of time, cost and complexity of getting an electricity connection, the World Bank said.

According to the institution, the changes in methodology are geared towards broadening use of the data by policy makers and researchers by expanding focus on regulatory quality.

The report’s aim is to help develop a greater understanding of the importance of the quality of business regulation, and its link to regulatory efficiency and economic outcomes. 

By continuously building on data and enhancing how it is collected, the report team is able to dissect the business regulatory environment and produce more global knowledge with every new publication, the World Bank said.

The Doing Business 2016 report named Singapore as the best country to do business in. The island state has topped the rankings since 2007.