In the past year, governments in 117 economies carried out 216 regulatory reforms aimed at making it easier to start and operate a business, strengthening transparency and property rights, and improving the efficiency of commercial dispute resolution and bankruptcy procedures.

This is a finding ofDoing Business 2011: Making a Difference for Entrepreneurs, the eighth in a series of annual reports published by IFC and the World Bank. The reportranks 183 economies on key aspects of business regulation for domestic firms.

Armenia dropped 4 points in current ranking, with the country appearing in 48th position.

Globally, doing business remains easiest in the high-income economies of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development and most difficult in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. But developing economies are increasingly active. In the past year, 66 percent reformed business regulation, up from 34 percent six years earlier.

In the past five years, about 85 percent of the world’s economies have made it easier for local entrepreneurs to operate, through 1,511 improvements to business regulation.Doing Business2011 pioneers a new measure showing how much business regulation has changed in 174 economies since 2005.China and India are among the top 40 most-improvedeconomies.Among the top 30most-improvedeconomies, a third are fromSub-Saharan Africa.

For the fifth year running, Singapore leads in the ease of doing business, followed by Hong Kong SAR China, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.Among the top 25 economies, 18 made things even easier over the past year.

Russia was ranked 123rd in the list, Georgia -12th, Azerbaijan -54th, Turkey -65th.