Agriculture value added is the net output of agriculture (International Standard Industrial Classification divisions 1–5, including forestry and fishing) after totaling outputs and subtracting intermediate inputs. (World Bank and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Bank capital to asset ratio is the ratio of bank capital and reserves to total assets. Capital and reserves include funds contributed by owners, retained earnings, general and special reserves, provisions, and valuation adjustments. Capital includes tier 1 capital (paid-up shares and common stock), which is a common feature in all countries’ banking systems, and total regulatory capital, which includes several specified types of subordinated debt instruments that need not be repaid if the funds are required to maintain minimum capital levels (these comprise tier 2 and tier 3 capital). Total assets include all nonfinancial and financial assets. (International Monetary Fund) Bank nonperforming loans to total gross loans are the value of nonperforming loans divided by the total value of the loan portfolio (including nonperforming loans before the deduction of specific loan loss provisions). The loan amount recorded as nonperforming should be the gross value of the loan as recorded on the balance sheet, not just the amount that is overdue. (International Monetary Fund) Business entry rate is the number of firms newly registered in the reported year as a percentage of total registered firms. Total firms registered are all firms registered in the reported year and include sole proprietorships, partnerships, and corporations. (International Finance Corporation) Closing a business is the number of years from the time of filing for insolvency in court until resolution of distressed assets. (World Bank) Cost of telephone call to U.S. is the cost of a three-minute, peak rate, fixed-line call from the country to the United States. (International Telecommunication Union and World Bank) Deposit money banks’ assets are claims on the domestic real nonfinancial sector by deposit money banks. (International Monetary Fund) Domestic credit to private sector refers to financial resources provided to the private sector—such as through loans, purchases of nonequity securities, and trade credits and other accounts receivable—that establish a claim for repayment. For some countries these claims include credit to public enterprises. (International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Ease of doing business index ranks economies from 1 to 175, with first place being the best. A high ranking means that the regulatory environment is conducive to business operation. The index ranks the simple average of the country’s percentile rankings on 10 topics covered in Doing Business 2007: How to reform. The ranking on each topic is the simple average of the percentile rankings on its component indicators. (World Bank) Electrical outages are the average number of days per year that establishments experience power outages or surges from the public grid. (World Bank) Electric power consumption measures the production of power plants and combined heat and power plants minus transmission, distribution, and transformation losses and own use by heat and power plants. (International Energy Agency) Exchange rate is the exchange rate determined by national authorities or the rate determined in the legally sanctioned exchange market. It is calculated as an annual average based on monthly averages (local currency units relative to the U.S. dollar). (International Monetary Fund) Exports of goods and services are the value of all goods and other market services provided to the rest of the world. They include the value of merchandise, freight, insurance, transport, travel, royalties, license fees, and other services, such as communication, construction, financial, information, business, personal, and government services. They exclude compensation of employees and investment income (formerly called factor services) as well as transfer payments. (World Bank and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Firing cost is the cost of advance notice requirements, severance payments, and penalties due when terminating a redundant worker, expressed in weekly wages. One month is recorded as 4 1/3 weeks. (World Bank) Fixed line and mobile subscribers are telephone mainlines connecting a subscriber’s equipment to the public switched telephone network and users of portable telephones subscribing to an automatic public mobile telephone service using cellular technology that provides access to the public switched telephone network. (International Telecommunication Union) Foreign direct investment, net, is net inflows of private investment to acquire a lasting management interest (10 percent or more of voting stock) in an enterprise operating in an economy other than that of the investor. It is the sum of equity capital, reinvestment of earnings, other long-term capital, and short-term capital, as shown in the balance of payments. (International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) GDP growth is the annual percentage growth rate of GDP at market prices based on constant local currency. Aggregates are based on constant 2000 U.S. dollars. GDP is the sum of gross value added by all resident producers in the economy plus any product taxes and minus any subsidies not included in the value of the products. It is calculated without making deductions for depreciation of fabricated assets or for depletion and degradation of natural resources. (World Bank and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) GNI per capita, World Bank Atlas method, is gross national income converted to U.S. dollars using the World Bank Atlas method, divided by the midyear population. Gross national income is the sum of value added by all resident producers plus any product taxes (less subsidies) not included in the valuation of output plus net receipts of primary income (compensation of employees and property income) from abroad. Gross national income, calculated in national currency, is usually converted to U.S. dollars at official exchange rates for comparisons across economies. To smooth fluctuations in prices and exchange rates, the World Bank Atlas method is used; it averages the exchange rate for a given year and the two preceding years, adjusted for differences in rates of inflation between the country and the euro zone, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. (World Bank) Government cash surplus or deficit is revenue (including grants) minus expense and net acquisition of nonfinancial assets. (International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Government debt is the entire stock of direct government fixed-term contractual obligations to others outstanding on a particular date. It includes domestic and foreign liabilities such as currency and money deposits, securities other than shares, and loans. It is the gross amount of government liabilities reduced by the amount of equity and financial derivatives held by the government. Because debt is a stock rather than a flow, it is measured as of a given date, usually the last day of the fiscal year. (International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Gross fixed capital formation includes land improvements (fences, ditches, drains, and so on); plant, machinery, and equipment purchases; and the construction of roads, railways, and the like, including schools, offices, hospitals, private residential dwellings, and commercial and industrial buildings. According to the 1993 System of National Accounts, net acquisitions of valuables are also considered capital formation. (World Bank and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Gross fixed private capital formation is gross outlays by the private sector (including private nonprofit organizations) on additions to its fixed domestic assets. (World Bank and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Highest marginal tax rate, corporate, is the highest rate shown on the national level schedule of tax rates applied to the annual taxable income of corporations. (PricewaterhouseCoopers) Imports of goods and services are the value of all goods and other market services received from the rest of the world. They include the value of merchandise, freight, insurance, transport, travel, royalties, license fees, and other services, such as communication, construction, financial, information, business, personal, and government services. They exclude compensation of employees and investment income (formerly called factor services) as well as transfer payments. (World Bank and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Industry value added is the net output of industry (International Standard Industrial Classification divisions 10–45, including mining, manufacturing, construction, electricity, water, and gas) after totaling outputs and subtracting intermediate inputs. (World Bank and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Inflation is the annual percentage change in the cost to the average consumer of acquiring a basket of goods and services that may be fixed or changed at specified intervals, such as yearly. The Laspeyres formula is generally used. (International Monetary Fund) Interest rate spread is the interest rate charged by banks on loans to prime customers minus the interest rate paid by commercial or similar banks for demand, time, or savings deposits. (International Monetary Fund) Internet users are people with access to the worldwide network. (International Telecommunication Union) Investment in infrastructure with private participation refers to infrastructure projects in telecommunications, energy (electricity and natural gas transmission and distribution), transport, and water and sanitation that have reached financial closure and directly or indirectly serve the public, including operation and management contracts with major capital expenditure, Greenfield projects (in which a private entity or public-private joint venture builds and operates a new facility), and divestitures. Incinerators, movable assets, stand-alone solid waste projects, and small projects such as windmills are excluded. (World Bank) Labor force is all people who supply labor for the production of goods and services during a specified period, according to the International Labour Organization definition of the economically active population. It includes both the employed and the unemployed. While national practices vary in the treatment of such groups as the armed forces and seasonal or part-time workers, in general the labor force includes the armed forces, the unemployed, and first-time job-seekers, and excludes homemakers and other unpaid caregivers and workers in the informal sector. (International Labour Organization and World Bank) Manufacturing value added refers to the net output of industries belonging to International Standard Industrial Classification divisions 15–37 after totaling outputs and subtracting intermediate inputs. (World Bank and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Micro, small, and medium-size enterprises are business that can be defined by the number of employees. There is no international standard definition of firm size; however, many institutions that collect information use the following size categories: micro enterprises have 0–9 employees, small enterprises have 10–49 employees, and medium-size enterprises have 50–249 employees. (International Finance Corporation) Paved roads are roads surfaced with concrete, cobblestones, or crushed stone (macadam) and hydrocarbon binder or bituminized agents. (International Road Federation) Population is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship—except for refugees not permanently settled in the country of asylum, who are generally considered part of the population of their country of origin. The data shown are midyear estimates. (World Bank) Procedures to start a business are the number of procedures required to start a business, including interactions to obtain necessary permits and licenses and to complete all inscriptions, verifications, and notifications to start operations. Data are for businesses with specific characteristics of ownership, size, and type of production. (World Bank) Real interest rate is the lending interest rate adjusted for inflation as measured by the GDP deflator. (International Monetary Fund and World Bank) Services value added is the net output of services (International Standard Industrial Classification divisions 50–99) after totaling outputs and subtracting intermediate inputs. (World Bank and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Time dealing with government officials is the percentage of management time in a given week spent on requirements imposed by government regulations (taxes, customs, labor regulations, licensing, and registration). (World Bank) Time to start a business is the number of calendar days needed to complete the required procedures for legally operating a business. If a procedure can be speeded up at additional cost, the fastest procedure, independent of cost, is chosen. (World Bank) Top-five investment climate constraints are based on the share of senior managers surveyed who identified a particular constraint as their biggest constraint (in 2006 Enterprise Surveys in Africa and Latin America and the 2005 surveys in Malawi and Niger) or who ranked the items shown as a major or very severe constraint to business in their country (all other surveys). In any given country some constraints may not be identified by any firms as the biggest constraint even if they would be considered major or severe. The 2006 Enterprise Surveys in Africa and Latin America—except those in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, and Cape Verde—have weights for the estimates of the aggregate indicators to account for the random stratified sample design. The constraints from which the top five are drawn are: • Access to and cost of financing • Access to land • Anticompetitive or informal practices • Business licensing and permits • Corruption • Crime, theft, and disorders • Customs and trade regulations • Economic and regulatory policy uncertainty • Electricity • Labor regulations • Legal system and conflict resolution • Skills and education of available workers • Tax administration • Tax rates • Transportation system
For more information on the investment climate and Enterprise Surveys, see www.enterprisesurveys.org/ and www.worldbank.org/eca/econ. (World Bank) Total financial system deposits are the demand, time, and saving deposits in deposit money banks and other financial institutions. (International Monetary Fund) Total tax rate is the total amount of taxes payable by the business (except for labor taxes) after accounting for deductions and exemptions as a percentage of profit. For further details on the method used for assessing the total tax payable, see the World Bank’s Doing Business 2007: How to reform. (World Bank) Unemployment rate is the share of the labor force without work but available for and seeking employment. Definitions of labor force and unemployment differ by country. (International Labour Organization) |
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