WASHINGTON—Regardless of whether International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Kristalina Georgieva was to blame for changes to World Bank data in 2017 that benefited China, the scandal has dented the research reputations of both institutions, former staff, government officials and outside experts say.
The damage from the data-rigging scandal that forced the World Bank to discontinue its “Doing Business” investment climate rankings may be difficult to repair and has raised questions over whether the institutions’ influential research is subject to shareholder influence.
