Probe Finds World Bank Fudged China Data for 'Doing Business' Report
The World Bank has canceled its annual Doing Business report after an independent investigation found the bank “pressured” economists into modifying data in 2018 to boost China’s ranking, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
“Although the data-gathering process for the 2018 report was finished, the World Bank’s economists reopened the data tables and altered China’s data,” the Journal relayed on September 16, citing the investigative report’s findings. “Instead of ranking 85th among the world’s countries, China climbed to 78th due to the alterations.”
The U.S. law firm Wilmer Hale conducted the probe into the World Bank’s Doing Business report and published its findings on September 15. Kristalina Georgieva and Jim Yong Kim, who served as the World Bank’s chief executive and president, respectively, in 2018, are implicated in the report. Georgieva now works for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as its managing director.
