World Bank halts annual business report over data flaws

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

ANKARA (AA) - The World Bank has halted the release of its Doing Business report after finding "a number of irregularities" in two reports published in October 2017 and 2019.

"The changes in the data were inconsistent with the Doing Business methodology," it said Thursday in a statement.

"We are conducting a systematic review and assessment of data changes that occurred subsequent to the institutional data review process for the last five Doing Business reports."

The group said it asked its independent internal auditors to perform an audit for data collection and review the report to safeguard data integrity.

"We will act based on the findings and will retrospectively correct the data of countries that were most affected by the irregularities," it added.

The World Bank has briefed the Executive Directors Board and authorities of the countries that were most affected by the data irregularities.

According to the 2020 report, the economies with the most notable improvement were Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Togo, Bahrain, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, China, India and Nigeria.

The Doing Business Report is an annual study published by the World Bank since 2003 which aims to measure the regulations that enhance business activity in 190 countries.