LONDON: Low start-up costs and a favourable climate for entrepreneurs have made the UK the best country in the European Union in which to start a business, according to a new report.
The Legatum Institute, a London think-tank backed by an eponymous private investment firm, described the UK as “extremely entrepreneur-friendly” in its annual Prosperity Index. “At . . . around £66, the UK is the third cheapest place in the world to start a business, far cheaper than the US or Germany,” it said.
The relative success of Britain’s economy was cited as a key factor in helping it to maintain its position as one the world’s most prosperous countries.
Legatum’s prosperity index, which ranks countries on economic success combined with a series of wellbeing indicators, listed the UK as the 15th most prosperous country in the world — just behind Germany and the USA, but ahead of Austria, Singapore and Japan.
Norway has topped the rankings for each of the last seven years, with the next four places generally held by Switzerland, Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden.
The UK owes its position to a sharp improvement in its economic fortunes. Since 2013, the UK’s economic ranking has risen by nine places. Nathan Gamester, the programme director of the Prosperity Index, pinpoints the UK’s remarkable recent employment growth as a key to its economic transformation, observing how “the gap in full-time employment between the richest and poorest 20 per cent of the country has halved since 2009”.
