The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) executive board on Oct. 11 said it has “full confidence” in Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva following an investigation into allegations that she applied “undue pressure” on staff to boost China’s standing in the bank’s “Doing Business 2018” report. A report (pdf), prepared by outside law firm WilmerHale at the request of the World Bank’s ethics committee, implicated Georgieva and then-World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, and cast a spotlight on China’s influence at the institution. China’s ranking in the 2018 report, released in October 2017, should have been seven places lower, at 85th rather than remaining at 78th, the lender said in a review released in December 2020. The board of the 190-nation lending agency said Monday’s meeting was the eighth such board meeting on the matter, and that it had held two extensive discussions each with the representatives of WilmerHale as well as with the managing director. Concluding its review on the matter …