Half of Canadians have negative opinion of latest Liberal budget: poll
A new poll suggests the Liberals have not won over voters with their latest budget, though there is broad support for their plan to build millions of homes.
International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva on Friday denied allegations that she pressured World Bank staff to alter data to favor China during her time as World Bank CEO, as the IMF's executive board launched a formal review of the matter.
Georgieva used a previously scheduled meeting with the IMF's 2,700-strong staff to address findings contained in an independent report issued on Thursday on data irregularities in the World Bank's now-canceled "Doing Business" rankings of country business climates.
"Let me put it very simply to you. Not true. Neither in this case, nor before or after, I have put pressure on staff to manipulate data," Georgieva told IMF staff, according to a transcript of the meeting provided to Reuters.
Her remarks went further than she did in a statement issued on Thursday that said she fundamentally disagreed with the findings of the report, prepared by the law firm WilmerHale at the request of the World Bank's ethics committee.
The report found that Georgieva and other senior World Bank officials applied "undue pressure" on staff to boost China's ranking in terms of business climate.
Georgieva told IMF staff that she highly values data and analysis and does not pressure staff to change it, according to the transcript.
WilmerHale said it is working on a second report that will address "potential misconduct of staff members" in connection with the data irregularities.
The IMF's executive board ethics committee is reviewing the report, IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said on Friday. Georgieva briefed the board on the World Bank allegations on Thursday.
"As part of the regular procedure in such matters, the ethics committee will report to the board," Rice added, but gave no timetable for any conclusions.
The World Bank, a Washington-based multilateral lender, was seeking China's support for a big capital increase at the time - an effort that Georgieva, as its CEO, and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim were overseeing.
Georgieva has led the IMF and its roughly 2,500 staff since October 2019, playing a key role in the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic while securing support for a US$650 billion distribution of IMF monetary reserves to the Fund's 190 member countries.
Some IMF member countries, which fund its emergency lending and other projects aimed at alleviating poverty and bolstering global financial stability, voiced concern and said they are reviewing the ethics report. These included the United States, France, Britain and Japan.
The World Bank said on Thursday it would cancel the "Doing Business" report series, which has run since 2003 - dismaying investors who rely on it to help them assess country risk while handing a victory to civil society groups that saw it as a troubled and politicized instrument that worsened inequality.
The cancellation and allegations were felt on Wall Street and Washington.
"Those complicit should be held accountable, and free nations need to seriously re-evaluate the role we allow Beijing to play in global institutions," Senator Marco Rubio of Florida said in a statement to Reuters.
Senator Bill Hagerty, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee's international trade and finance subcommittee, asked for "restoration of this valuable report under conditions we can trust rather than its cancellation."
Discontinuing these annual reports could make it harder for investors to assess where to put their money, some investors told Reuters.
Paul Romer, a former World Bank chief economist, said Georgieva "sidelined" him from making the improvements for which he was hired to the bank's research integrity. Romer told Reuters that Georgieva "whitewashed" his concerns about the "Doing Business" report's data for Chile, which he said may have shown bias against a former socialist government.
Romer, a Nobel laureate economist at New York University, left the bank over the controversy in 2018.
"There was a willingness to do whatever worked or whatever seemed appropriate at any point without any guiding principles," Romer said of Georgieva.
A World Bank spokesman declined to comment on Romer's remarks.
The news and any fallout is likely to dominate the IMF and World Bank annual meetings that are held concurrently in Washington the second week of October.
A new poll suggests the Liberals have not won over voters with their latest budget, though there is broad support for their plan to build millions of homes.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
Appointing a trusted person to help with financial obligations can give you peace of mind. In his personal finance column for CTVNews.ca, Christopher Liew outlines the key benefits of naming a confidant to take over your financial responsibilities, if the need ever arises.
The federal government has added $36.4 million to a program designed to support people who have been seriously injured or killed by vaccines since the end of 2020.
Senators in Canada claimed $7.2 million in expenses in 2023, a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous year.
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
A photographer who worked for Megan Thee Stallion said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that he was forced to watch her have sex, was unfairly fired soon after and was abused as her employee.
A Minnesota state senator and former broadcast meteorologist told police that she broke into her stepmother's home because her stepmother refused to give her items of sentimental value from her late father, including his ashes, according to burglary charges filed Tuesday.
Australian police arrested seven teenagers accused of following a violent extremist ideology in raids across Sydney on Wednesday, as a judge extended a ban on social media platform X sharing video of a knife attack on a bishop that started the criminal investigation.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a Grade 4 student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.