Bangladesh went down two positions to 174 in the international ranking of World Bank's (WB) Ease of Doing Business 2016 report released today.

The report titled "Doing Business 2016: Measuring Regulatory Quality and Efficiency", ranked Bangladesh above Afghanistan (177th) in the South Asia region which comprises of eight nations. Bhutan topped the ranking (71st) among the South Asian economies.

Every year the WB's Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations.

The report measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 10 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.

These areas were compared across 189 countries -- from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe – to rank the economies.

Doing Business 2016 finds that six of the South Asia region's eight economies implemented nine reforms during the past year, compared with six reforms in four economies the previous year.