Washington — Gita Gopinath, the first deputy MD at the IMF, will leave her post at the end of August to return to Harvard University, the IMF said in a statement on Monday.
IMF MD Kristalina Georgieva will name a successor to Gopinath in “due course”, the IMF said.
“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,” Georgieva said.
“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 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, and major shifts in the global trading system,” she added.
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. 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.”
Gopinath joined the fund in 2019 as chief economist — the first woman to serve in that role — and was promoted to the role of first deputy MD in January 2022.
She has taught in Harvard’s economics department since 2005. She holds a doctorate in economics from Princeton University, where Ben Bernanke was among her advisers before he became then Federal Reserve chair. Another adviser was Ken Rogoff, one of Gopinath’s predecessors as IMF chief economist.
Reuters
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