World Bank temporarily stops publishing Doing Business rankings

The World Bank temporarily stopped publishing the annual Doing Business ranking, which assessed the conditions for doing business in various countries. At the moment, the bank is analyzing previous violations in the preparation of analytical materials.

The statement said that mistakes were found in the reports for 2018 and 2020. Also, some flaws were found in the calculation methodology itself. The bank’s independent auditors plan to review the last five reports. Based on the results of the research, the errors will be corrected.

The World Bank noted that the indicators and analytical reporting methodology were not created for specific countries, but to improve the overall business environment. Over the past seventeen years, the rating has become an important tool for states that use it to assess the costs of running a business.

Doing Business is a kind of reflection of how easy it is to do business in a particular country. The rating is made up in ten directions. The main criteria here were the registration of property, as well as the passage of customs checks. The new rating was supposed to be published in October this year.

In 2012, in May decrees, Russian President Vladimir Putin set the government the task of influencing the country’s economy in such a way that it could rise from 124th place to 20th according to the results of 2018. However, it was not possible to achieve the desired numbers. The country entered the top thirty last year, ranking 28th between Austria and Japan.

At the same time, the Russian tax service has repeatedly raised the issue of the correctness of the rating methodology. Although the former head of the department, Mikhail Mishustin, didn’t publicly voice his claims, he discussed them in personal correspondence with the bank’s management. On this occasion, many personal meetings were also held. Due to the fact that it was not possible to reach a consensus in the negotiations, the Russian side began to openly declare its disagreement and point out specific mistakes.