(1). Business regulation
商业规程
(3). The big emerging markets are still much in need of reforms
巨大的新兴市场仍亟需改革
(4). REFORM is a universal medicine urged upon struggling economies by liberal institutions.
改革是自由派的市场体制敦促挣扎中的经济体所服下的一剂万灵药。
(5). When a country has been messed up long enough, reform becomes much needed.
当一个国家长时间处于混乱状态,那么改革就成为了亟需之物。
(6). Reform means many things, of course, from cutting budget deficits to improving education.
当然,改革意味着很多事情,比如削减预算赤字和提高教育水平。
(7). But a big part of it concerns business regulation, which reflects how much a country encourages companies and how much microeconomic distortion there is to economic activity.
但是改革的很重要的一部分涉及到商业规程,它反映了国家如何鼓励企业发展以及经济活动中有多少畸形微观经济。
(8). Such regulation is also measurable across boundaries, so one country can be compared with another.
这种规程同样适用于所有国家,所以各国之间可以相互比较。
(9). So what does this year’s survey of global business regulation by the World Bank reveal about which countries most need much needed reform—and which might not?
所以,世界银行今年关于全球商业规程的纵览透露了关于哪些国家最需要必要的改革以及哪些国家会不需要的什么信息呢?
(10). Italy and Greece are high on everyone’s list of places that need to change a lot, and the World Bank’s list confirms it.
意大利和希腊高居所有关于需要改变国家的名单之中,而世界银行列出的榜单也确认了这一点。
(11). They come a lowly 65th and 72nd respectively, out of 189 countries.
在189个国家中,他们分别位于第65和第72的较低位置。
(12). The same is true, more or less, of France and Spain, two fellow euro-sufferers.
这种情况对于法国和西班牙这两个同为欧债受害国的也几乎如此。
(13). Germany, on the other hand, might not be in such urgent need of change, to judge by this measure.
根据这个标准来判断,德国却可能并不如此紧迫的需要改变。
(14). It comes 21st on the World Bank’s list, immediately after the small Asian, Nordic and English-speaking countries that are always found at the top of the table.
在世界银行的这项榜单中,德国位列21名,紧跟一些亚洲,北欧和以英语为母语的国家。这些国家总是位于榜单的较高位置。
(15). This puts Germany above such paragons of business-friendliness as Estonia and Chile.
这使得德国领先于爱沙尼亚和智利这些作为友好型商业模范的国家。
(16). Japan does not score too badly either, coming 27th, above the Netherlands.
日本排名为27,也获得了并不逊色的名次,位于荷兰之前。
(17). This does not mean these countries can rest on their laurels, but the doing-business scores might suggest why they do a bit better than their distorted macroeconomic indicators might lead you to expect.
这并不意味着这些国家就可以居功自傲,止步不前。但是商业经营方面的分数可能暗示了为什么这些国家会比你根据他们本国畸形的宏观经济指标给出的期望值做的稍好的原因。
(18). The biggest emerging markets, on the other hand, do surprisingly badly.
从另一方面看,这些最大的新兴市场的情况却是出人意料的糟糕。
(19). Russia comes in at number 92, China is 96th, Brazil 116th and India a deplorable 134th—below Yemen.
俄罗斯位列92,中国96,巴西116,而印度则不幸被排在134名,位于也门之后。
(20). Yet until recently, these BRICs were exemplars of economic growth.
然而直到前段时间,这些金砖国家还是经济快速增长的楷模。
(21). Two possible conclusions might be hazarded: either they would have done even better had their business regulations been reformed; or, because they were growing so fast for other reasons, they shrugged off bad regulation that would have crippled less buoyant countries.
两种可能的结果都会十分危险:他们要么改革商业规程以期做得更好,要么对于损害那些发展势头并不良好国家的恶劣规程表示不屑一顾,因为他们一度由于其他原因发展迅速,比如农民逐渐迁入城市从事生产率更高的工作。
(22). Or, probably, both.
或者可能两种结果都会出现。