World Bank discontinues business climate report after ethics review

IMF MD Kristalina Georgieva was cited by the World Bank in the probe of its periodic 'Doing Business' report

The World Bank Group said on Thursday it has decided to discontinue publication of its "Doing Business" rankings of country business climates after a review of data irregularities in the 2018 and 2020 reports, Reiuters reported.

In a statement, the World Bank said that after the irregularities raised ethical matters involving former bank staff and board officials, the development lender will work on a new approach to assessing countries' business and investment climates.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva was cited by the World Bank in the probe of its periodic “Doing Business” report, Bloomberg reported.

“The changes to China’s data in Doing Business 2018 appear to be the product of two distinct types of pressure applied by bank leadership on the Doing Business team,” the World Bank said in a report Thursday. The bank cited “pressure applied by CEO Georgieva and her advisor, Mr. Djankov, to make specific changes to China’s data points in an effort to increase its ranking at precisely the same time the country was expected to play a key role in the bank’s capital increase campaign”.

Georgieva served as chief executive officer of the World Bank prior to moving to head the IMF.