The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, announced on Monday that Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s second-in-command, will leave the organization and return to Harvard University’s economics faculty by the end of August.
“I am truly grateful for the time I spent at the IMF, first as Chief Economist and later as Deputy Managing Director. […] Now I am returning to my academic roots, where I hope to continue expanding the frontiers of knowledge in international finance and macroeconomics to address global challenges,” Gopinath stated.
The Indian-origin economist, who made history in October 2018 when she was appointed as the first woman Chief Economist following a nomination by then-IMF Director Christine Lagarde, has resumed her plan to return to academia, a move she had previously considered in early 2022.
As the IMF’s Deputy Managing Director since 22, Gopinath has led efforts in surveillance and policy-related initiatives. She has also overseen research and key publications from the institution.
Georgieva highlighted Gopinath’s role during a “challenging” period marked by the pandemic, inflationary crisis, and trade wars.
“Gita led the Fund’s analytical and policy work with clarity, striving to uphold the highest standards of rigorous analysis during a complex time of great uncertainty and rapid evolution in the global economic environment,” Georgieva noted.
Before her appointment as Chief Economist, Gopinath was the John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and Economics at Harvard University’s Economics Department.
She has also served as a visiting researcher at the IMF and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, as a member of the New York Federal Reserve’s Economic Advisory Panel, as an economic advisor to the Chief Minister of the Indian state of Kerala, and as part of India’s G-20 Eminent Persons Group under the Ministry of Finance.
Prior to joining Harvard in 2005, she was an assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
— news from Infobae