World Bank Halts Ease Of Doing Business Ranking Over Data Irregularities

On Thursday (local time), World Bank said that it has paused its publication of the Doing Business Report for 2020, due in October, as it probes data collection irregularities in the annual reports.

"A number of irregularities have been reported regarding changes to the data in the Doing Business 2018 and Doing Business 2020 reports, published in October 2017 and 2019. The changes in the data were inconsistent with the Doing Business methodology," World Bank said in its statement.

The international financial institution said that in its over 17 years of existence, the Doing Business report has been a valued tool for countries seeking to measure costs of doing business. It is conducting a systematic review and assessment of data changes that occurred subsequent to the institutional data review process for the last five Doing Business reports.

"We have asked the World Bank Group's independent Internal Audit function to perform an audit of the processes for data collection and review for Doing Business and the controls to safeguard data integrity," it said.

The Bank stated it will act based on the findings and will retrospectively correct the data of countries that were most affected by the irregularities.

The rankings are based on a country's performance on 10 indicators: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.

In 2019, India's ranking jumped to the 63rd position among 190 countries.