World Bank launches more robust, transparent business climate rankings

The World Bank on Monday unveiled a new methodology and improved safeguards for assessing the business climate in up to 180 countries after embarrassing revelations of data irregularities and favouritism toward China forced it to cancel its flagship rankings two years ago. The bank scrapped its “Doing Business” rankings in September 2021, citing internal audits and an independent probe that found senior World Bank leaders had pressured staff to alter data to favour China. It cited data irregularities that also boosted the rankings of other countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan. A pilot edition of the new replacement annual series called “Business Ready” will be published in the spring of 2024, covering an initial group of 54 economies in Asia, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa, the bank said.