World Bank rectifies error in its 'Doing Business' report, China's place declines

After being called “world’s worst jailer”, China’s position also declined in the rectified report by World Bank ranking countries across the globe by on 'Ease of Doing Business' index. The World bank corrected two of its reports, resulting in China ‘declining by 7 places’ in a 'Doing Business' report of 2018 released in October 2017, the Asian country belonged to the 85th place rather than 78th, the lender said in a review released earlier this week. While India remains unaffected with the corrections, in a separate rectification for the 2020 report, released in October 2019, Saudi Arabia would not have been the top improving economy and Azerbaijan should have moved up to be among the top 10 improvers. 

The World Bank on December 16 adjusted the score for China and three other nations based on an internal audit after the staffers made allegations of “undue pressure” by the management to alter the ratings. Even the score of United Arab Emirates (UAE) for 2020 should have been slightly less than its reported ranking that would have been unchanged at 16th. According to the review, there were not any specific irregularities with other nations. However, the changes in the nations including China has reportedly impacted metrics such as taxes and credit access. 

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Irregularities triggered suspension and probe

As per the official statement, the irregularities in the previous two reports were brought to the attention of the management of the Development Economics department which even resulted in suspension and probe of the publication that was announced on August 27. The review was released by the management that was working since June and was not involved in the years in question. It also said that the fixes will be reflected in the subsequent report in March 2021. 

Moreover, the members of the management team that put together the ‘Doing Business’ report cited both direct and indirect ‘undue pressure’ to fabricate the data for 2018 and 2020, the World bank said. About the data changes, the lender said that they were “irregular” because the rectification was made outside the appropriate review process and was not justified by the publication’s methodology.

Meanwhile, a United States-based watchdog on December 15 revealed that China jailed a record number of journalists this year, making it “world’s worst jailer for the second year in a row”. According to an annual report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released on Tuesday, governments across the world attempted to suppress the media along with fuelling misinformation amid the COVID-19 pandemic. From delaying trials to disregarding health risk in prison, the watchdog also stated that at least two journalists died after contracting the highly-infectious disease in custody. 

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