PANAMA has dropped l three places  in the World Bank's annual "Doing Business" index, which measures the ease doing business in 189 countries, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises.

According to the document released Tuesday Oct, 27, the country went from 66th in 2014 year to 69th this year.

Mexico (38) was the highest ranked country in the region, followed by Peru (50), Colombia (54) and Costa Rica (58).

Economies with the lowest rating in the region were Venezuela (186), Haiti (182) and Bolivia (157).

Panama did well in the categories of ease of starting a business, ease of obtaining permits for construction and registration of intellectual property.

However, it was ranked 166th out of the 189 countries assessed in the ease of paying taxes, reports La Prensa.