IMF director in turmoil after revelations of pressure in favor of China

The boss of the IMF Kristalina Georgieva was in the hot seat Friday, after the revelation the day before of accusations of pressure exerted on her teams to modify a report in favor of China when she headed the World Bank.

Ludovic MARIN POOL / AFP / File

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The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, is accused in a report of independent experts of having pressured her teams to favor China in the annual "Doing Business" ranking when she was head of the World Bank .

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The annual “Doing Business” report, which ranks countries according to their business environment, will no longer exist in its current form.

This is the first repercussion of the case.

Enough to satisfy all

those who have accused it for years of being politically oriented

, by favoring certain countries or even by encouraging governments to carry out policies only intended to rise in the rankings.

In this case,

Kristalina Georgieva

is accused of having, when she was Managing Director of the World Bank in 2017, pressured her teams to favor China through a change in the methods of calculating data.

A case made public Thursday, September 17.

The stake for the international institution that year would have been to please Beijing in order to obtain a greater participation on its part in the Bank's budget.

Political pressure therefore, which according to the report commissioned by the IMF and made public on Thursday, fostered a context of intimidation, a "

toxic

 "

atmosphere

within the team responsible for the classification.

Allegations denied by the person concerned

Directly questioned, the current director of the IMF denies outright.

"

Neither in this case, nor before, nor after, I put pressure on the teams to manipulate the data

", assured Friday, September 18, the former managing director of the World Bank, to the administrators of the IMF, reported the

New York Times

.

Will she stay at her post?

Neither Beijing nor the IMF have commented, but the board is reviewing the independent expert report.

As for the “Doing Business” ranking, academics must present recommendations in a few days to improve the methodology.

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• IMF

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