The Gambia has earned the second to last place, 152 out of 153, on Forbes Magazine’s list of best countries for doing business in the world, falling behind Senegal by over 70 places.
According to the country’s 2016-2017 ranking, Gambia outranks only one country Chad out of all those assessed.
“The country (Gambia) faces a large fiscal deficit and a high domestic debt burden that has crowded out private sector investment and driven interest rates to new highs,” a part of the report’s summary stated.
Over all, the 2017 Forbes’ list is led by the United Kingdom 1st, New Zealand 2nd, the Netherlands 3rd, Sweden 4th and Canada 5th.
On the other hand, Libya 149th, Afghanistan 150th, Haiti 151st, Gambia 152 and Chad 153rd are at the bottom of the list.
To compile data, the Forbes list has relied on several other efficient reports issued by big organizations such as the World Bank’s Doing Business, the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom, the World Economic World Forum’s annual Global Competitiveness Report, the Property Rights Alliance’s International Property Rights Index and United Nations’ Human Development Index
When it comes to the country’s positioning among the 153 countries studied by Forbes, Morocco took the lead of the region, being the best country for business in North Africa followed by Tunisia 96th, Egypt 101st, Algeria 124th and Libya 149th.
In Africa, the kingdom is still among the best performing countries ranked third after Mauritius 41st, South Africa 48th and ahead of Ghana 85th, Namibia 86th and Senegal 89th.
The ranking issued on Tuesday, 19th of December, by the American magazine rated 153 countries on the basis of their property rights, innovation, taxes, technology, corruption, infrastructure, market size, political risk, quality of life, workforce, freedom (personal, trade and monetary), red tape and investor protection.
Gambia’s scores on various indicators were: Trade Freedom 136, Monetary Freedom 145, Innovation 106, Technology 103, Red Tape 141, Investor Protection 137, Corruption 131, Personal Freedom 129, Tax Burden 136.
