America’s choice wins World Bank election

The World Bank has chosen Korean-born American health expert Jim Yong Kim as its new president, maintaining Washington’s grip on the job and leaving developing countries questioning the selection process.

Mr Kim, 52, won the job over Nigeria’s widely respected finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, with the support of America’s allies in Europe, Japan, Canada and some emerging market economies, including Russia, Mexico and South Korea.

But unlike previous World Bank elections, the decision yesterday was not unanimous.

Mr Kim, president of Dartmouth College, will assume his new post on 1 July. The US has held the presidency since the World Bank’s creation in 1944.