IMF is preparing to hear its director Kristalina Georgieva

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is preparing to hear its director Kristalina Georgieva. The manager is under pressure in a case where she is suspected that, as the head of the World Bank, she put pressure on her subordinates. According to the law firm WilmerHale, it did so in an effort to portray China's more favorable colors in the key Doing Business report. An IMF spokesman declined to confirm Reuters' information, and WilmerHale did not comment. According to sources, the executive board is preparing to subject Georgieva to a thorough interrogation these days, and it intends to do the same with the authors of the critical report. Both parties will testify separately. Lawyers from WilmerHale should ask about the circumstances of their September 15 report, which details how Georgiev said in 2017 she pressed subordinates to falsify data, helping China to rank higher in the prestigious rankings. Georgieve has previously vehemently denied allegations of manipulation. According to sources, the executive board invited her to Tuesday, she will testify in front of its members in person. On the same day, Georgieva has a scheduled online presentation on the upcoming opening of the autumn IMF and World Bank meetings. These take place from 11 to 17 October. The talks are likely to have a major impact on Georgieva's future leadership of the Monetary Fund. Their content could contribute to strengthening or, conversely, reducing its support among IMF shareholders. The most influential member governments, including the United States' largest shareholder, have so far been reluctant to comment in public. In the meantime, they are waiting for the investigation to proceed. For example, the British government said last week that it supported transparent investigations. The World Bank has hired the law firm WilmerHale to ask its experts to investigate inconsistencies in data found in 2020 in a Doing Business report. personnel to falsify the data, so that China then moved from 85th to 78th place in the rankings. At the time, according to media reports, the World Bank was trying to gain China's support for the planned significant capital increase. Georgiev was the Executive Director of the SB from January 2017, and from February to April 2019, after the resignation of the President of the SB, Jim Yong Kim, she was also the interim head of this institution. Since October 1, 2019, she has been the Executive Director of the IMF. The Doing Business report was one of the key publications of the SB, dealing with the investment climate in individual countries. When the law firm WilmerHale published the results of its research in September, SB stated that it would stop publishing the Doing Business report.