World Bank Admits and Corrects Rating Revisions
Following an investigation regarding internal pressure to adjust scores for four countries including China, the World Bank released a review and corrected two recent reports.
The World Bank corrected a 2018 report released in October 2017 that placed China in the 78th rank in terms of ease of doing business, according to the review released this week. Following the correction, China fell seven ranks to 78th.
The review also featured other errors for the 2020 report released in October 2019 including the ranking of Saudi Arabia as the top improving economy; placing Azerbajian amongst the top 10 improvers; and inflating the United Arab Emirates’ score.
According to the World Bank, it faced «undue pressure» by management to alter the ratings and the irregularities were flagged by the management of the Development Economics department which triggered a suspension and probe of the publication.
