Regulatory environment indicators

Even after the economic liberalisation of the 1990s, the regulatory environment for business remains very challenging. For example, in the World Bank’s ‘Doing Business 2013’ report (with data from 2012), Russia was still ranked 112 out of 185, behind countries such as Guatemala and Zambia. However, the last two years have shown a dramatic improvement, moving to 92nd place in 2013 and 62nd in 2014. While the 2013 and 2014 results are not wholly comparable, due to the inclusion of new indicators in 2014, improvements highlighted over the last two years include simplified procedures for registering new companies and purchasing properties. By contrast, construction permits, cross-border trading and connecting to the national electricity grid (despite slight improvements in the latter) are areas in which Russia remains near the bottom of the international league table.