Washington — The World Bank said on Thursday that it is 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 report has long been controversial because it ranks countries based on indicators of how their government bureaucracies and regulations affect — and often limit — their attractiveness as destinations for business investment. Romer resigned over the controversy, in which he said in a Wall Street Journal interview that the report “conveyed the wrong impression” about Chile’s business environment under Bachelet.
“The changes in the data were inconsistent with the Doing Business methodology,” the bank said, adding that it will “correct the data of countries most affected by the irregularities”.