Indian-American Gita Gopinath, the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is all set to become IMF’s First Deputy Managing Director.
IMF announced on Thursday that Gita Gopinath would replace Geoffrey Okamoto, who plans to leave the Fund early next year. Gopinath, who served as the IMF’s chief economist for three years, was scheduled to return to her academic position at Harvard University in January 2022.
“I am honored to become the IMF’s First Deputy Managing Director. With the pandemic, the work of the Fund has never been more important. I look forward to working with my brilliant colleagues to help our membership face these important challenges,” Gopinath said in a Twitter post.
“Both Geoffrey and Gita are tremendous colleagues—I am sad to see Geoffrey go but, at the same time, I am delighted that Gita has decided to stay and accept the new responsibility of being our FDMD,” said Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s Managing Director, while making the announcement.
“Especially given that the pandemic has led to an increase in the scale and scope of the macroeconomic challenges facing our member countries, I believe that Gita—universally recognized as one of the world’s leading macroeconomists—has precisely the expertise that we need for the FDMD role at this point. Indeed, her particular skill set—combined with her years of experience at the Fund as Chief Economist—make her uniquely well qualified. She is the right person at the right time,” Georgieva added.
IMF’s Managing Director has also noted that Ms. Gopinath’s contribution to the Fund’s work has already been exceptional, especially her “intellectual leadership in helping the global economy and the Fund to navigate the twists and turns of the worst economic crisis of our lives.” She also said that Ms. Gopinath—the first female Chief Economist in IMF history—has garnered respect and admiration across our member countries and the institution, with a proven track record in leading analytically rigorous work on a broad range of issues.”
Georgieva observed that under Ms. Gopinath’s leadership, the IMF’s Research Department had gone from “strength to strength,” particularly highlighting its contributions in multilateral surveillance via The World Economic Outlook, a new analytical approach to help countries respond to international capital flows (the integrated policy framework), and Ms. Gopinath’s recent work on a Pandemic Plan to end the COVID-19 crisis by setting targets to vaccinate the world at feasible cost.
Gopinath, who is a U.S. national and overseas citizen of India, will start in her new position as FDMD on January 21, 2022.
