Reported by HPMM Group according to FINANCIAL TRIBUNE ; Iran’s National Business Environment Index improved slightly in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year (Dec. 22, 2017-March 20), according to the results of a study undertaken by Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture.

The index stood at 5.8 points in the fourth quarter, indicating a 0.92% and 0.58% improvement compared with Q3 and the same quarter of the year before respectively.

The index calculated by ICCIMA measures business friendliness of Iran’s economy, with 10 indicating the worst grade. The lower the figure, the better the business environment.

Instability and unpredictability of raw material prices, financial difficulties associated with getting credit from banks and policy uncertainty, as well as strict watchdog rules were the most undesirable factors affecting Iran’s business environment during the period under review, according to the findings of the study.

The chamber also measures the index for each of the 31 provinces. The report named Kermanshah, Sistan-Baluchestan and North Khorasan as the provinces with the worst environment to do business in, while Mazandaran, Qazvin and Zanjan provinces were considered the best.

As for fields of business, “water supply, wastewater management and water treatment”, “wholesale and retail sales” and “agriculture, forestry and fishing” had the worst business environment while “education”, “arts and entertainment” and “finance and insurance” had the best environment of all fields.  The services sector beat industries (5.84) and agriculture (5.90) with a score of 5.76.