The International Monetary Fund’s executive board is reviewing an external World Bank investigation report that said both Kristalina Georgieva, during her time as World Bank CEO, and former World Bank president Jim Yong Kim manipulated data changes to boost China’s rankings score in the bank’s Doing Business report.
“The IMF executive board met today with the representatives of the law firm WilmerHale as part of its ongoing review of the matter raised by WilmerHale’s investigation of the World Bank’s Doing Business 2018 report,” the IMF said in a statement on Monday. “The executive board will also meet on the matter soon with the managing director as part of this process.”
It added, “The executive board remains committed to a thorough, objective, and timely review.”
Last month, the World Bank released the findings of an independent investigation into irregularities in its 2018 and 2020 Doing Business reports.
The 84-page review was written by senior academics and economists and was published on the bank’s website.
The 2018 ease of doing business report had initially given China a 65.3 score with a global ranking of 78, but after a review, China’s score fell to 64.5, and the global ranking went up to 85.
Ms Georgieva denied any allegations of improper conduct regarding the manipulations.
The bank said it would discontinue the report after the damning revelations. The Doing Business report focuses on taxes, red tape, regulation, and other business conditions.
It ranks countries based on how easy it is to register a business, enforce a contract, resolve bankruptcy issues, and has been cited by some governments seeking to attract investment.
