It's easy to do business here

From a field of 181 economies NZ has been ranked second behind Singapore as a country in which it’s easy to do business.

NZ ranked first for the ease of starting a business and second for the ease of doing business.

Chamber CEO Michael Barnett said this is good news for an economy that loses so many of its larger businesses to other economies but remains a test bed for new ideas and small and medium businesses that establish here.

“Successive governments have ensured that there is good support for new businesses and though we have not won the battle against compliance issues, the battle continues.

Mr Barnett also suggested that while we can celebrate the areas where NZ ranked well, we should also look at the areas of employment where the lack of flexibility of hours along with the difficulty firms have managing staff levels remain issues, along with tax where form filling and compliance impose an unnecessary burden on business.