WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The World Bank Group said on Thursday it was pausing publication of its ‘Doing Business’ report to probe data collection irregularities in the closely watched annual ranking of countries’ business and investment climates.
The World Bank said in a statement that it would conduct a systematic review of data changes in the last five Doing Business reports and asked its independent internal audit function to probe the report’s collection and review processes to ensure data integrity.
“The publication of the Doing Business report will be paused as we conduct our assessment,” the bank said.
(Reporting by David Lawder)