IMF board seeks more details on probe into World Bank report on China

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will request additional details of the ongoing probe into the activities of the organization's Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva when she was the World Bank's CEO.

"The Executive Board remains committed to a thorough, objective, and timely review. While the Board has made significant progress in its assessment, it agreed at today's meeting to request more clarifying details with a view to very soon concluding its consideration of the matter," the IMF said on Friday, as quoted by Sputnik news agency.

The World Bank started a probe against allegations that its staff had altered an index that measures the ease of doing business. Following the initial investigation, it was found that bank officials pushed the team developing the index to manipulate it in several cases, most notably to improve China's ranking.

Last month, Georgieva said that the authors of the report made "wrong conclusions" and emphasized that she had not engaged in any corruption at her former workplace.

Earlier, the World Bank decided to discontinue publication of its Doing Business report following allegations of irregularities. The decision was taken after a probe of data irregularities due to pressure by some top bank officials to boost China's ranking in 2017 came forth.

The Doing Business report assesses regulatory environments, ease of business startups, infrastructure and other business climate measures.

Georgieva, a key adviser reportedly pressured staff to 'make specific changes to China's data points' and boost its ranking at a time when the Bank was seeking China's support for a big capital increase.