World Bank: former president suspected of favoritism towards China
Kristalina Georgieva with the Chinese Premier during a meeting in Beijing in November 2019. REUTERS - Florence Lo
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
According to sources familiar with the matter, the board of directors of the International Monetary Fund should meet this Friday, October 8 after questioning its managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, on Wednesday.
The latter is suspected of having manipulated data in favor of China, when she headed the World Bank.
Advertising
Read more
Kristalina Georgieva is accused, in a report of independent experts, of having pressured her teams to raise China in the annual World Bank “
Doing Business
”
ranking
2018. The allegations date back to 2017, when she was general manager of the bank. The “Doing Business” ranking assesses the business climate by country, so it plays an important role in the competition to attract foreign investment. The stake would have been to favor China to please it in order to obtain a greater participation of its share in the budget of the World Bank.
Kristalina Georgieva denies everything.
She believes that the American law firm WilmerHale, which conducted the investigation, misinterpreted her actions.
First repercussion of this survey: the World Bank has decided to stop the publication of the “Doing Business” reports and is considering ways to improve its methodology.
An embarrassing situation because it is the reputation of the World Bank that is at stake, and more generally the loss of confidence in the major international institutions.
►
To read also:
World Bank: the credibility of the “Doing Business” ranking re-
emphasized
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
China
world Bank