Washington (AFP)

The boss of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, appeared weakened in her post as managing director of the institution on Friday, after accusations revealed the day before about pressure exerted on her teams, when she headed the World Bank, to modify a report in favor from China.

IMF member countries "will have to say whether they think she should stay in this post," Nobel economics winner Paul Romer told AFP.

This former chief economist of the World Bank accuses Ms. Georgieva of having wanted to cover up disagreements over the methodology of a report, which had prompted him to resign from the development institution in January 2018.

The IMF board, which had already met Thursday at the request of Kristalina Georgieva, had a meeting on its agenda on Friday, but the agenda was a review of the Indian economy.

Asked by AFP, the IMF did not indicate whether or not this agenda should be changed.

An investigation made public Thursday has indeed blamed the leader of the Fund for having, while she was managing director of the World Bank, in 2017, pressured the teams to favor China in a ranking, in a context of 'intimidation and "toxic" culture within the team.

And now voices are rising, fearing a loss of confidence in international institutions.

The "implication" of Kristalina Georgieva "in the manipulation of data for the benefit of China is alarming", thus reacted Andy Barr, elected Republican in the American Congress, who considers that it is "essential to ensure integrity of the IMF ".

- Board of Directors -

His colleague French Hill also called the report "alarming" and said "the reputation of multilateral lenders is now tarnished".

He believes that if the allegations are true, "the IMF's board should quickly assess the action" of Kristalina Georgieva at the head of the institution.

The elected official also denounced a new example of "the way in which the Chinese Communist Party systematically works to instrumentalize multilateral institutions".

IMF Director Kirstalina Georgieva (l) and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, July 1, 2021 in Washington Nicholas Kamm AFP / Archives

Relations between China and the United States are particularly strained, since former Republican President Donald Trump waged a trade war against the Middle Empire.

His Democratic successor Joe Biden does not appear to be on the way to signing an armistice.

The ball is now largely in the court of the United States, whose votes on the board of the IMF - body responsible in particular for choosing the managing director - weigh the heaviest.

They also have a right of veto.

The US Treasury, equivalent to the Department of Economy and Finance, said Thursday that it was analyzing the report, whose conclusions it deemed "worrying", and stressed that its "primary responsibility is to preserve the integrity of institutions international financial institutions ".

The elected French Hill thus called on the Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, to report the situation to Congress, and to find ways to "guarantee the strict and transparent integrity of the data in the reports and evaluations of the Bank. world and the IMF ".

- "Hard blow" for the IMF -

Justin Sandefur, of the Center for Global Development, who has widely warned about the methodological problems of the report and the "Doing Business" classification of the World Bank, is rather pessimistic about the future of Kristalina Georgieva at the head of the IMF.

"For the head of the IMF, having been involved in data manipulation is a rather damning allegation," he said, referring to "a blow to (the) credibility" of the international institution.

The annual "Doing Business" report establishes a ranking of countries with the most favorable environment for economic activity and business, according to several parameters.

In 2017, China had little appreciated its 78th place in the "Doing Business" report of the Bank.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, Beijing November 6, 2018 THOMAS PETER POOL / AFP / Archives

To prevent it from tumbling even lower in the rankings the following year, and to gain China's backing in sensitive negotiations, Kristalina Georgieva, as well as then World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, would have sought how to modify the methodology to the benefit of Beijing.

Ms. Georgieva said she "disagreed" with the conclusions of this investigation, whose authors interviewed dozens of employees, current and former, and sifted through 80,000 documents.

The World Bank, for its part, has announced that it is ceasing publication of this report.

© 2021 AFP