The UK has catapulted itself into the top position within the G7 as the best country for doing business.
It ranked as sixth easiest in the world for starting and running business, rising two spots in the last year, and overtaking the United States, the world’s largest economy.
The ranking comes from the World Bank’s annual Doing Business report.
Ahead of the UK were Singapore, New Zealand, Denmark, South Korea and Hong Kong.
British quality of regulation and efficiency were rated higher than Germany, Canada, and other advanced economies.
Portugal, perhaps surprisingly, entered the league with the rank of 23rd in the survey of 189 countries ahead of Switzerland, France and the Netherlands. Trailing behind them all was neighbouring Spain which appeared only in 33rd place.
The World Bank report said the UK, like leading Singapore, had taken steps during the year to cut bureaucracy.
It praised the UK government’s drive to reduce corporation tax rate and employers’ national insurance bills. The Chancellor has said corporation tax will be cut to 18% by the end of the decade.
Now it takes 4.5 days to start a business in Britain, compared to six days last year and against a backdrop of a global average of 20 days.
The World Bank said that the top countries were "not those with no regulation" but those which had struck the balance between creating clear rules without hindering private sector growth.
“A modern economy cannot function without regulation and, at the same time, it can be brought to a standstill through poor and cumbersome regulation," said Kaushik Basu, the World Bank's chief economist and senior vice-president.
"The challenge of development is to tread this narrow path by identifying regulations that are good and necessary, and shunning ones that thwart creativity and hamper the functioning of small and medium enterprises."
