International Monetary Fund (IMF) Chief Kristalina Georgieva is under fire this month after she reportedly pressured staff to boost China's rankings in the "Doing Business" report.
“The changes to China’s data in 'Doing Business 2018' appear to be the product of two distinct types of pressure applied by bank leadership on the 'Doing Business' team,” the World Bank said in a report. It cited "pressure applied by CEO Georgieva and her advisor, Mr. Djankov" as a reason for China's ranking to be higher than it should have been in the 2018 edition of the report.
Instead of being placed at number 85 in the rankings, China was given a rank of 78, a jump of seven spots. Due to the controversy, The World Bank has decided to do away with the once-prestigious report altogether, citing a lack of trust in the report.
Georgieva claims that she did not engage in the alleged manipulation: "Let me put it very simply to you. Not true. Neither in this case, nor before or after, I have put pressure on staff to manipulate data." It is alleged her misconduct occurred during her previous role as an executive with the World Bank and calls into question her judgment within her current role.