China Admits Misuse of World Bank Funds

China admitted that some money lent by the World Bank had been misused for speculative investments and pledged to better oversee its international loans. The World Bank is China’s single-biggest lender. About 28%--$7.74 billion--of its lending to China has been soft loans for agriculture, the China Daily reported. The bank has often cited China as the most reliable country for implementing loans, but part of a $162-million World Bank loan was misused to speculate in steel and fertilizer imports, the newspaper said. It said part of the loan was later repaid to the bank, but gave no details. A State Auditing Administration official said departments that do poorly will be disqualified from projects using international loans.