Georgieva to name a successor to Gopinath

Gita Gopinath, the No. 2 official at the International Monetary Fund, will leave her post at the end of August to return to Harvard University, the IMF said in a statement.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva will name a successor to Gopinath in “due course,” the IMF said.

Gopinath joined the fund in 2019 as Chief Economist, the first woman to serve in that role, and was promoted to First Deputy Managing Director in January 2022.

No comment was immediately available from the US Treasury, which manages the dominant U.S. shareholding in the IMF. While European countries have traditionally chosen the Fund’s managing director, the US Treasury has traditionally recommended candidates for the role of first deputy managing director.

Gopinath is an Indian-born US citizen.

The timing of the move caught some IMF insiders by surprise and appears to have been initiated by Gopinath.

Gopinath, who had left Harvard to join the IMF, will return to the university as a professor of economics.