South Korea ranked seventh in terms of business environment this year thanks to its efforts to streamline regulations for business operation, the finance ministry said Tuesday.

The ranking by the World Bank was one notch higher than the previous year and marked the third consecutive year that South Korea has been included in the global top 10 list, according to the ministry.

The World Bank analyzed 189 countries' business environments by breaking them down into 10 broad categories involving the so-called business life cycle from start to closure.

South Korea ranked second among G20 countries following the United States, the ministry said. Of the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, it came in fourth.

South Korea saw its ranking climb from 26th to 18th in terms of construction permit. In taxation, its ranking also rose from 30th to 25th, the ministry said.

Its rankings in property registration and investor protection, however, remained quite low at 75th and 52nd.

"This World Bank report provides a 'quantitative' assessment of basic business environment for small- and medium-sized enterprises," the ministry said.

"It is important for us to work hard in analyzing good practices of other countries and improve our weak points in such fields as property registration," it added.

Meanwhile, Singapore maintained its top status in business environment, followed by Hong Kong, New Zealand, the United States and Denmark. (Yonhap News)