The director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, said Thursday that a report that accuses her of participating in data manipulation at the World Bank while she held a high position in that institution is an inaccurate representation of what happened.
The statement was issued a day after Georgieva appeared before the IMF’s executive board, which is investigating allegations that World Bank employees were pressured in 2018 to alter data that affected their ranking of the environment for doing business in China and others. nations.
The bank’s annual “Doing Business” report ranks countries after assessing their tax burdens, bureaucratic hurdles, regulatory systems and other conditions for doing business. Governments seeking to attract investment are interested in ranking high in the report.
“I am glad that I finally had the opportunity to explain to the IMF board my role in the Doing Business report and how I respected the integrity of the report,” Georgieva said in a statement released Thursday.
In addition to the statement, Georgieva’s lawyers released the 11-page report that she delivered to the council on Wednesday in a meeting lasting more than five hours. The board of directors is scheduled to meet again to discuss the matter on Friday.
Georgieva has denied any wrongdoing amid calls for him to resign from the IMF leadership. She served as CEO of the World Bank between January 2017 and September 2019, before assuming the highest-ranking position at the IMF in place of Christine Lagarde, who now heads the European Central Bank.
The data tampering allegations stem from a review by law firm WillimerHale, which said Georgieva pressured the bank’s economists to upgrade China’s rating at a time when she and other bank officials were trying to persuade Beijing. to support increasing the financial resources of the World Bank.
The law firm’s report caused the World Bank to stop publishing its Doing Business report. It also fueled complaints that China, the world’s second-largest economy, has too much influence over global financial institutions.
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