RFI - The World Bank's "Doing Business" ranking, one of the most scrutinized by investors, gauges the competitiveness and attractiveness of 190 countries each year. But his credibility is questioned.

According to an internal investigation which released its conclusions this week, it appears that the data of several countries was manipulated to favor certain countries such as China, Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan, in particular in 2017 and 2019. The Bank world promises to clean up to save the credibility of its ranking.

“Taxation”, “access to credit”, “ease of starting a business”, the World Bank screens some forty indicators to establish its annual ranking of countries where it is good to do business. Suffice to say that its conclusions are awaited, watched.

Pressures

We now know that pressure has been exerted internally to favor certain States. It is the management of the group which, alerted, carried out its investigation. Out of fifteen officers interviewed, nine said they had been under direct or indirect pressure to change their conclusions, almost all of them gave in.

For example, in the 2017 report, China should have dropped seven places but was maintained at 78th place. The report does not mention who exactly would have exerted the pressure but each time, the interventions were made outside the regular procedure. What the World Bank would like to make impossible now.

Doubts

It is now the credibility of a classification which is not the first questioning. Two years ago, an economist of the Bank, Paul Romer, had expressed doubts about the political motivations of certain officials of the institution when Chile, which had just had the socialist Michèle Bachelet elected, was then lowered in the ranking " Doing Business”. The banker had however been forced to resign after his remarks.