My Take | IMF chief another victim of China-US rivalry

The IMF and World Bank are the two latest multinational bodies to be dragged through the mud in the bitter struggle between the superpowers

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In this file photo taken on April 15, 2020 a sign is seen outside the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Photo: AFP

Published: 9:00pm, 30 Sep 2021

These days, anything that may have made China look good is bound to cause controversy and criticism. Just ask the last president of the World Bank, Kristalina Georgieva, and the current one, David Malpass. And now more multinational bodies are being dragged through the mud.

In itself, the latest “scandal” may seem like a storm in a teacup, but one should never underestimate the ability of US politicians – or their friendly British press – to make a big fuss if there is an unstated political agenda to advance.

Georgieva took over the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2019 after serving as CEO and then interim president of the World Bank. Lately, she has been accused, while she still at the bank, of pressuring a data team responsible for the bank’s flagship annual publication Doing Business to nudge China’s rankings up seven places to 78th in its index, in the edition for 2018.

The scandal broke when a law firm hired independently to probe the data manipulation claims, concluded the allegations were credible. She has disputed the findings.

Whatever she did or didn’t do, an improvement of seven places in a country’s business climate and ease of doing business seems rather minor, especially given the stellar improvement in China’s rankings since Malpass, a former United States Treasury official under Donald Trump and a China hawk, took over the bank. During his tenure, China jumped to 31st in 2020, and then 25th in the unpublished 2021 report. The influential publication, which started in 2002, has been terminated because of the furore.