Indian-American economist and International Monetary Fund (IMF) first deputy managing director Gita Gopinath has announced her resignation and said that she would be returning to Harvard University.
Citing an IMF official, Reuters reported on Monday that 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.
What Did the IMF Say?
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said she would announce Gopinath’s successor at the appropriate time.
According to reports, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva described Gopinath as “an outstanding colleague – an exceptional intellectual leader, devoted to the mission and the Fund’s members, and a superb manager who always shows genuine care for the professional status and well-being of our staff”.
“Gita steered the Fund’s analytical and policy work with clarity, striving for the highest standards of rigorous analysis at a complex time of high uncertainty and a rapidly changing global economic environment,” Georgieva said as quoted by Reuters.
Georgieva said Gopinath also co-authored the ‘Pandemic Plan’ to end the COVID-19 crisis, a contribution that has been widely praised as filling a critical global gap by setting goals to vaccinate the world at a viable cost.
What Did Gita Gopinath Say?
In a post on social media, Gopinath said she is rejoining Harvard University as a professor of economics. Gopinath, the first woman chief economist in the history of the IMF, said on microblogging website X, “After nearly 7 amazing years at the IMF, I have decided to return to my academic roots.” Gopinath said she was grateful for the “once in a lifetime opportunity” to work at the IMF, thanking both Georgieva and former IMF chief Christine Lagarde, who appointed her as chief economist.
Who Is Gita Gopinath?
Gita Gopinath is an Indian-American economist who currently serves as the First Deputy Managing Director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). She graduated in economics from the Delhi School of Economics and the University of Delhi. After that, she moved to the US to obtain an M.A. degree from the University of Washington. She later received her PhD from Princeton University.
In January 2019, Gita joined the IMF as chief economist and was promoted to the post of first deputy managing director. Before joining the IMF, Gita was the John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and Economics at the Department of Economics, Harvard University, from 2005 to 2022. From 2001 to 2005, she served as an assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
