CARIBBEANJOURNAL.COM: For the second year in a row, St Lucia is the top-ranked CARICOM country for ease of doing business, according to the Doing Business 2013 Report from the World Bank.

St Lucia was ranked 53rd worldwide on the list, although that represented a drop from its ranking of 52nd in the 2012 report.

Puerto Rico, a US territory, was the highest-ranked place overall in the Caribbean for the ease of doing business, coming in at 41st.

Coming in at second in CARICOM was Antigua and Barbuda, which was ranked 63rd overall, followed by Dominica at 68th.

Fourth on the CARICOM list was Trinidad and Tobago at 69th, followed by St Vincent and the Grenadines at 77th.

The report looks at a series of regulations that apply to an economy’s businesses during their life cycles, from startup to trading across borders and paying taxes.

Worldwide, Singapore topped the rankings for the seventh year in a row.