The World Bank Group said on Thursday it has decided to discontinue publication of its “Doing Business” rankings of country business climates after a review of data irregularities in the 2018 and 2020 reports.
In a statement, the World Bank said that after the irregularities raised ethical matters involving former bank staff and board officials, it will work on a new approach to assessing countries’ business and investment climates.
The irregularities in Doing Business reports had affected four countries: China, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan.
According to the review findings, the initial Doing Business 2018 report, China had a score of 65.3 with a global ranking of 78, similar to the previous year’s.
However, after the corrections in data for indicators like Starting a Business, Getting Credit, and Paying Taxes indicators, China’s score fell to 64.5 and global ranking to 85.
“Taking as given the published data for all other countries, China’s global ranking in Doing Business 2018 would have been 85, a decline of 7 places relative to the previous year,” World Bank had said in its review report.
“Going forward, we will be working on a new approach to assessing the business and investment climate. We are deeply grateful to the efforts of the many staff members who have worked diligently to advance the business climate agenda, and we look forward to harnessing their energies and abilities in new ways,” the lender said.
