IMF First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath to step down

International Monetary Fund (IMF) second in command, First Deputy Managing Director (FDMD) Gita Gopinath will step down from her role in August to return to ‘academic roots’.

The announcement was made by IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on Monday, who confirmed that Gopinath will wrap up her role with the Fund by end August to return to Harvard University, where she will be the inaugural Gregory and Ania Coffey Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics. 

A successor to Gopinath is expected to be named in due course by Managing Director Georgieva.

Gopinath joined the Fund in January 2019 as Chief Economist and was promoted to First Deputy Managing Director in January 2022.

“Gita has been 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,” said Georgieva issuing a statement.

“Gita 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 rigor was paired with practical policy advice to the membership during an especially challenging period, which included the pandemic, wars, the cost-of-living crisis etc. 

Gopinath oversaw the Fund’s multilateral surveillance and analytical work on fiscal and monetary policy, debt, and international trade. She is also the first female Chief Economist in IMF history, where she ensured that the World Economic Outlook remained the preeminent report on the global economy.

Meanwhile, Gopinath, commenting on her departure expressed gratitude to Georgieva and predecessor, Christine Lagarde, for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to serve 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,” she said.