Russia breaks into Bloomberg top 50 countries for business

​For the first time Russia has entered the top 50 in Bloomberg’s Best Countries for Business 2014 ranking at 43rd. It's up 13 positions from last year primarily due to improved domestic consumption and WTO membership.

Russia scored 61.6 out of 100, sharing the position with Oman, and in between Bulgaria and Panama.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called 43rd place "not strongly outstanding", nevertheless recognized the rating promotion as "pleasant", says the Kommersant daily newspaper.

Bloomberg experts analyzed data from 157 countries. A similar Doing Business (DB) rating by the World Bank has Russia moving to 92nd place from 111th out of 189 countries.

Unlike DB, the Bloomberg rating ranges countries not only by the costs of a specific business, but also by the macroeconomic situation, and global market involvement. Thus many parameters involving state regulation are united under the general grouping of "less-tangible costs", at 20 percent of the total score.

This grouping is where Russia did worst. The criteria covered are the risks of corruption, the extent of protection of property rights, rates of inflation, tax loading and accounting adaptability, which gave it a rating second worst after India,.

Russia got its highest score in the “degree of economic integration" criteria with 78 out of 100 points – comparable to the total score of the best ten countries.

Number one in the ratings was Hong Kong, which took top spot last year as well, and it's where there are the least number of restrictions on the movement of goods, and it’s the easiest to begin new business.

Many developing countries, including Russia and China, entered the top 50, mainly due to an extensive consumer market, and also due to high level of economic integration, taking into account the WTO membership, low import tariffs and global market access.