Political stagnation drags Nepal down in International Property Rights Index 2012

The political stagnation dragged the country two positions down in the global ranking.
The International Property Rights Index 2012 released internationally today has ranked Nepal at the 102nd position from last year’s 100th. Though, Nepal dropped two positions to the 102nd — its overall score remained constant at 4.4 out of 10 — among the 130 economies. Last year, Nepal was ranked 100th among the 129th economies with the score 4.4 points, according to the report launched in the Valley by the Samriddhi, the Prosperity Foundation.
“Nepal’s score has seen no changes in the International Property Rights Index 2012 from a year ago, mainly due to no changes in Legal and Political stagnation, according the report.
Regionally, Nepal stands at almost the bottom at the 17th position out of 19nations in the Asian Pacific region.
However, Nepal was in the bottom 20 per cent of the quintile in the International Property Rights Index last year but this year it has been featured in the fourth quintile due to not so good performance of other nations.
Last year, Nepal had improved a little, scoring 0.4 more from 2010’s score of 4, due to improvement in Physical property rights. Among the three key indicators — Legal and Political Environment, Physical Property Rights and Intellectual Property Rights — the Physical Property Rights gained 0.1 point to 5.9 points from last year’s 5.8 points due to two of three of its subcategories increasing in 2012, the report said, adding that the two indicators’ scores — Legal and Political Environment and Intellectual Property Rights — remained unchanged at 3.2 points and 4.1 points, respectively, compared to last year. The Northern and Southern neighbours to Nepal — Peoples Republic of China and India — scored 5.5 points ranking 57th and 5.4 points ranking 62nd as the countries where there is more property rights.
Finland ranked first with a score of 8.6 points followed by Sweden at 8.5 points, according to the report. Finland has retained its top spot for the sixth year in a row, whereas in South Asia, Pakistan and Bangladesh that are below Nepal, scored 4.2 (113 rank) and 3.6 (125), respectively. In South Asia, Sri Lanka is ranked 76th with 5 points.
At the bottom of the ranking is Nigeria with 3.9 points, according to the report. The sixth edition of International Property Rights Index (IPRI) is a publication of the Property Rights Alliance, with sixty-seven think tanks and policy organisations in fifty-three countries involved in research, policy, development, education and promotion of property rights in various countries.