Business Environment Snapshot for Niger - Highlights

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Region: Sub-Saharan Africa
Income category: Low income
Population: 14,668,742
GNI per capita (US$): 328.81

Below are select highlights for the data included in the profile.

With an exception of the Economic Freedom Index, Niger improved its ranking in all other available indicators.
According to the Economic Freedom Index Niger economic freedom score increased this year, but the country still performs poorly in the business freedom, labor freedom, financial freedom, property rights, and freedom from corruption. Tax rates and informality (percentage of sales reported for tax purposes) were ranked as the greatest obstacles to firm investment, according to the 2006 Enterprise Surveys.
Niger's overall Ease of Doing Business ranking remains unchanged this year. Niger improved in the Starting a Business indicator by reducing the number of procedures, time, cost and minimum capital required. However, at $3,545 per container, Niger is the second most expensive place in Africa (after Central African Republic at $5,491).

View global rankings on the business environment. See the underlying scores, the trend indicator, and a radar chart with regional and income group comparisons.

View Comparison Chart

#	Indicator	Rank				Scale	Score							Trend over past year¹
#	Indicator	2009	2008	2007	2006	Scale	2009	2008	2007	2006	2005	2004	2003	Trend over past year¹
1	Business Environment Index EIU - Global Outlook Report					1-10
2	Control of Corruption Indicator World Bank Group		160 (202)	163 (201)	167 (201)	-2.5-2.5		-0.8	-0.9	-1.0	-0.8	-0.9	-1.0
3	Regulatory Quality World Bank Group		136 (202)	142 (200)	146 (200)	-2.5-2.5		-0.5	-0.6	-0.6	-0.5	-0.6	-0.7
4	Country Credit Rating Institutional Investor	146 (178)	149 (174)	153 (174)	151 (173)	0-100	22.4	18.0	16.6	17.7	16.4	16.7	16.1
5	Index of Economic Freedom The Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal	128 (179)	125 (157)	125 (157)	128 (157)	0-100	53.8	52.9	53.2	52.5	54.1	54.6	54.2
6	Political Risk Rating (ICRG) PRS Group	121 (140)	122 (140)	118 (140)	114 (140)	0-100	54.0	53.5	55.5	56.5	57.0	58.0	58.5
7	Doing Business Ranking World Bank Group	174 (183)	174 (183)			1-183²
8	Quality of National Business Environment Ranking World Economic Forum - Global Competitiveness Report					1-127²

View Comparison Chart

Notes:

Please Note: As each of these rankings is collected and published on a different schedule, we associate the data with the year it was published. For Doing Business, the data is also associated for the year it was published (not the year of the report). For example, the data for 2007 was published in 2007 (yet from the Doing Business 2008 report).

¹An up/down rating requires a change within the last 2 years with available data of at least 1%
²These two sources only provide rankings, not an underlying score. We do not report trends for these two, as trends on rankings cannot be compared with the trends on scores.

View more detailed data from Doing Business and the Enterprise Surveys, two flagship data products of the World Bank Group focusing on private sector development. View key economic and private sector development indicators.

Doing Business

[Click to expand/collapse]

Source: Doing Business Website

Ease of...	2009 rank	2008 rank	Change in rank
Doing Business	174	174	0
Starting a Business	157	161	4
Dealing with Construction Permits	166	160	-6
Employing Workers	173	174	1
Registering Property	85	77	-8
Getting Credit	150	147	-3
Protecting Investors	154	151	-3
Paying Taxes	141	122	-19
Trading Across Borders	173	172	-1
Enforcing Contracts	138	136	-2
Closing a Business	141	140	-1

Three Well Performing Indicators	Percentile Rank¹	Indicator Value²	Compare with Income Group Average	Compare with Region Average
Getting Credit: Private bureau coverage (% of adults)	99.5	0.0	1.7	37.7
Protecting Investors: Extent of director liability index (0-10)	96.2	1.0	3.3	3.2
Protecting Investors: Ease of shareholder suits index (0-10)	91.3	3.0	4.7	5.1

Three Potential Indicators for Reform	Percentile Rank¹	Indicator Value²	Compare with Income Group Average	Compare with Region Average
Starting a Business: Min. capital (% of income per capita)	1.1	613.7	352.9	283.6
Employing Workers: Rigidity of employment index (0-100)	1.1	67.8	34.5	36.8
Employing Workers: Difficulty of hiring index (0-100)	1.1	100.0	45.1	47.2

¹A percentile rank of 1 reflects a country ranked for that variable in the bottom 1 % of countries. Conversely, a percentile rank of 100 reflects a country ranked for that variable in the top 1% of countries.
²The value shown in this column is the specific value for the indicator. For example, if there is a value of 9.8 for Starting a Business: Duration (Days), that means that for the particular country it takes 9.8 days to Start a Business.

See Full Indicator List

Enterprise Surveys

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Source: Enterprise Surveys Website

Top 10 Constraints to Firm Investment in Niger

Senior Management Time Spent in Dealing with Requirements of Government Regulation (%)

% of Firms Expected to Pay Informal Payment (to get things done)

% of Firms Using Banks to Finance Investments

% of Firms With ISO certification ownership (%)

Time spent in meetings with tax officials (days)

Average Time to Clear Direct Exports Through Customs (days)

Note: These graphs compare the relevant country to the best and worst countries within the region and the world.

Time Series Data

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Source: WDI, ILO, S&P

	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Macro Indicators
GDP growth (annual %)	3.0	4.4	-0.8	7.4	5.2	3.2
Inflation, consumer prices (annual %)	2.6	-1.6	0.3	7.8	0.0	0.1
Total Returns Index (IFCGTRUS)
Financial & Private Sector Development Indicators
FDI Net Inflows (% of GDP)	0.1	0.6	0.9	1.3	1.4	0.6
Gross Fixed Capital Formation, private sector (% of GDP)	5.2	5.9	11.3	12.5
Tax revenue (% of GDP)					10.8	11.7
Exports of goods and services (% of GDP)	15.2	16.6	16.9	15.4
Imports of goods and services (% of GDP)	24.1	26.1	27.4	24.8
Domestic credit to private sector (% of GDP)		5.3	6.6	6.9	8.3	9.4	11.0
Domestic credit to private sector (% of total domestic credit)		56.7	54.7	63.2	105.3	135.1	177.7
Total Financial System Deposits to GDP	6.6	7.4	6.8	7.5	7.4	8.7
Bank nonperfoming loans to total (%)
Lending Spread
Private Sector Employment as a % of Total Employment
Business Entry Rate (new registrations as % of total)

View projects associated with the World Bank Group's Finance and Private Sector Development unit. View brief summaries of the private sector strategy as stated in the most recent Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) document.

Niger Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) PSD focus:
(January 2003)

Financial sector reform: - Improve regulatory environment; - Restructured banking and insurance sector; - Develop micro-finance institutions.
Implementation of privatization program. - Improve infrastructure; - Simplify regulatory framework; - Improve legal and judiciary system.

World Bank [Click to expand/collapse]
Project		Total Project Amount (US $ millions)	Contact
Name:	Niger Growth Policy Reform Grant (Growth DPL-1)	40.00	Rossignol,Ivan
ID:	P107741
Open/Close:	3/24/2009
Status:	Active
Name:	FINANCIAL SECTOR TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PROJECT	14.80	Ouattara,Korotoumou
ID:	P074316
Open/Close:	2/19/2004
Status:	Active
Name:	Privatization and Regulatory Reform Technical Assistance Project	18.60	Weber,Michaela J.
ID:	P051272
Open/Close:	9/15/1998 - 12/31/2006
Status:	Closed
IFC [Click to expand/collapse]
Project		Total Project Amount (US $ millions)	Contact
Name:	Niger Doing Business Indicator Solution Design, Admin Barrier and METR	0.66	Jean Paul Gauthier
ID:	548746
Open/Close:	11/5/2006 - 12/31/2007
Status:	Closed

Title	Author/Contact	Source	Date
Niger Doing Business profile		Doing Business database	09/09
Niger - Accelerating growth and achieving the Millennium Development Goals : diagnosis and the policy agenda : country economic memorandum			09/07
Doing Business 2008 Niger : comparing regulation in 178 economies			06/07
Summary of investment climate assessment in Niger		Africa Region, Private Sector Unit series. -- No. 30 (August 2006)	08/06
Niger - Country assistance strategy			01/03

Notes:

Doing Business

Enterprise Surveys

Time Series Data

Bankruptcy and Collateral Laws (Closing a Business, Getting Credit - Legal Rights)

Commercial and Company Laws (Starting a Business, Protecting Investors, Closing a Business)

Constitutions (Starting a Business, Employing Workers, Registering Property, Enforcing Contracts)

Labor Laws (Employing Workers)

Tax Laws (Paying Taxes)

Trade Laws (Trading Across Borders)