Morocco Ranks 62nd in List of Best Countries for Business

Rabat – Morocco was ranked 62^nd out of 144 countries in Forbes’ 2015 ranking list of the Best Countries for Business, released on Wednesday.

The U.S.-based magazine ranked Morocco as the best destination to do business in North Africa, gaining 17 places compared to last year’s ranking. It came ahead of Tunisia, Mauritania, Algeria and Libya who ranked 82, 129, 137 and 142 respectively. On the Arab level, Morocco ranked fourth, only behind United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan who ranked 40^th, 48^th and 60^th respectively.

Morocco ranked in the third position in Africa, preceded by Mauritius (37^th) and South Africa (47^th).

The ranking highlighted that Morocco demonstrated a remarkable advance in terms of Monetary Freedom (22^nd) and Trade Freedom (73^rd).

Despite the progressive achievements and high ranking compared to the African and Arab countries, Morocco is invited to do many efforts regarding other indexes. The country ranked 98^th in Innovation, 98^th in Personal Freedom, 92^nd in Investor Protection, 78^th in Technology, and 72^nd in the index of Corruption.

Morocco performed average regarding Red Tape (38^th), Tax Burden (54^th), Market Performance (62^nd) and Property Rights (62^nd).

Forbes grades countries according to the above mentioned indexes and the countries’ major stock index returns for 12 months. Europe dominates the top of Forbes’ annual ranking of the finest countries for capitalism, with Denmark on the top of the ranking, followed by New Zealand, Norway, Ireland and Sweden.

However, the U.S. slid four spots to 22^nd position in the ranking, which is dominated by Scandinavian countries.

In the World Bank’s 2016 Doing Business report, released last October, Morocco ranked 75^th in the overall ranking, moving up five places from last year’s ranking thanks to the reforms implemented by the country to improve the business environment.