World Bank ranks NZ above average for business

New Zealand is above the OECD average in the ease of doing business, a new World Bank report shows.

In December, the bank rated New Zealand the easiest place out of 155 countries to do business and the latest findings include:

* Starting a business: New Zealand ranks fourth. Entrepreneurs can expect to go through two steps to launch a business over 12 days compared with the OECD average of 6.5 steps over 19.5 days

* Enforcing contracts: New Zealand ranks fourth. It takes 50 days on average to enforce a contract through legal action compared with nearly 226 days in the OECD on average.

* Hiring and firing workers: New Zealand ranks fourth. For New Zealand, the index measuring the ease of hiring and firing workers is seven compared with an OECD average of 35.8 (a higher value represents more rigid employment regulations).

* Trading across borders: New Zealand ranks 15th. It takes eight days to export a standard shipment of goods as against 12.6 days in the OECD on average.

* Paying taxes: New Zealand ranks 16th. A medium-sized company must make eight payments and spend 70 hours a year paying taxes compared with 16 payments and 197 hours in the OECD on average.

- NZPA