WASHINGTON -- The International Monetary Fund says it needs more time to weigh its response to a law firm's findings that the agency’s managing director was involved in data-rigging at the World Bank when she was a top official there.

       The fund's executive board met Friday to consider the results of an investigation that found that in 2018, World Bank employees were pressured to alter data affecting its business-climate rankings of China and other nations. At the time, current IMF head Kristalina Georgieva was a top official at the World Bank.

       The allegations of data-rigging come from a review conducted by the WilmerHale law firm that found Georgieva pressured the bank’s economists to improve China’s ranking at a time when she and other bank officials were attempting to persuade China to support a boost in the World Bank’s funding resources.

       Georgieva has denied any wrongdoing amid calls that she should resign from her position at the IMF.

       The Washington-based IMF's board issued a short statement Friday saying that it had agreed to "request more clarifying details with a view to very soon concluding its consideration of the matter.”