World Bank Revises Down China's Ease Of Doing Business 2018 Ranking Citing Data Irregularities

In a setback for China, the World Bank has come out with revised rankings for its 2018 Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) index citing data irregularities which had resulted into better rankings/incorrect score for four nations, including China, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan, reports Economic Times.

This comes after the World Bank had on 27 August announced a pause on the publication of its EoDB report following several irregularities regarding changes to data in the previous editions had come to the fore.

While China had been ranked 78 globally in the Doing Business 2018 report, upon taking into account the correct set of data, it's ranking has been pushed down by seven positions to 85. Irregularities had been found in China's data for Starting a Business, Getting Credit and Paying Taxes indicators.

With its score being corrected for the aforementioned indicators, China's total score has been revised downwards from 65.3 to 64.6.

Other than China, while Azerbaijan's ranking has improve to 28 from 34, Saudi Arabia's ranking has fallen from 63 to 62. However, the UAE's rank has remained unchanged at 16.

Meanwhile, it should be noted that as per the latest Doing Business 2020 report, India had jumped 14 places to the 63rd position on the ease of doing business ranking. India has improved its rank by 79 positions in five years (2014-19).