Today's Edition
WASHINGTON (ALETIHAD)
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva announced on Monday that Gita Gopinath, the Fund’s First Deputy Managing Director (FDMD), will step down at the end of August to return to Harvard University.
Gopinath will take up the position of inaugural Gregory and Ania Coffey Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics.
Gopinath joined the IMF in January 2019 as Chief Economist and was appointed FDMD in January 2022.
In a media statement, Georgieva praised Gopinath as “an outstanding colleague—an exceptional intellectual leader, dedicated to the mission and members of the Fund, and a fabulous manager, always showing genuine care for the professional standing and wellbeing of our staff.”
She continued: “She came to the Fund as a highly respected academic in macroeconomics and international finance. Admiration for Gita only grew through her time at the Fund, where her analytical rigour was paired with practical policy advice to the membership during an especially challenging period, which included the pandemic, wars, the cost-of-living crisis, and major shifts in the global trading system.”
Georgieva also highlighted Gopinath’s leadership on policy and surveillance: “Gita steered the Fund’s analytical and policy work with clarity, striving for the highest standards of rigorous analysis at a complex time of high uncertainty and a rapidly changing global economic environment. She oversaw the Fund’s multilateral surveillance and analytical work on fiscal and monetary policy, debt, and international trade.”
She noted that Gopinath played a key role in country programmes, including for Argentina and Ukraine, and regularly represented the Fund at major international platforms, including the G-7 and G-20.
“She has a rare combination of brilliance and humility, which we have all come to admire,” Georgieva added.
“As Chief Economist, Gita ensured that the World Economic Outlook remained the preeminent report on the global economy—an especially impressive achievement during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“She also spearheaded the Fund’s work on the Integrated Policy Framework (IPF), which helps countries develop policies for macroeconomic and financial stability. Gita co-authored the Pandemic Plan on how to end the COVID-19 crisis—an intellectual contribution widely hailed for setting global vaccination targets at a feasible cost.”
Commenting on her departure, Gopinath said: “I am truly grateful for my time at the IMF, first as Chief Economist and then as First Deputy Managing Director. I have had the privilege of working closely with the IMF’s brilliant and committed staff, colleagues in management, the Executive Board, and country authorities.”
She added: “I am especially thankful to Kristalina and her predecessor, Christine Lagarde, for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to serve the IMF’s membership during a period of unprecedented challenges.”
“I now return to my roots in academia, where I look forward to continuing to push the research frontier in international finance and macroeconomics to address global challenges, and to training the next generation of economists.”
