WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 23—The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has released its 33rd. discussion paper entitled "How Businesses see Government - Responses from Private Sector Surveys in 69 Countries."
Managers of nearly 4,000 firms in 69 countries (developing countries, transition countries, and high-income OECD countries) answered questions about perceived government-induced obstacles to doing business. The authors, Aymo Brunetti of the University of Saarland and the University of Basel, Gregory Kisunko of the World Bank, and Beatrice Weder of the University of Basel, address two questions: how serious are these obstacles to doing business from the point of view of business persons; and how do perceived obstacles differ across groups of countries.
Corruption, crime and theft, tax regulations, labor regulations, poor infrastructure, inflation, and frequent policy changes were found to impede businesses in a major way. Detailed results are provided for 22 groups of countries.
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest multilateral source of equity and loan financing for private sector projects in developing countries.
