The Wall Street Journal has just reported that the World Bank has “canceled” the biennial update of its “Doing Business” report, which evaluates business climates in countries around the world. The reason is that “an investigation concluded that senior bank management pressured staff to alter data affecting the ranking of China and other nations”. Publication of the report was suspended last year after data irregularities came to light.
The leaders implicated include then World Bank Chief Executive Kristalina Georgieva, now managing director of the International Monetary Fund, and then World Bank President Jim Yong Kim [former president of Dartmouth College, now with a hedge fund].
The Doing Business report has been the subject of an external probe into the integrity of the report’s data. On Thursday, the bank released the results of that investigation, which concluded that senior bank leaders including Ms. Georgieva were involved in pressuring economists to improve China’s 2018 ranking. At the time, she and others were attempting to persuade China to support a boost in the bank’s funding.
Red China’s rank in the report rose from 90th place in 2013 to 31st in 2019, aided by data manipulation. Showing that equal opportunity cheaters were at work, Azerbaijan leaped from 80th to 34th in the same period.
Ms. Georgieva has, needless to say, denied any wrongdoing. The Journal has no reaction from Mr. Kim. He was, it may be noted, president of the Bank when its chief economist raised concerns about the report and was promptly forced to resign.
I leave it up to readers to draw their own conclusions.
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