Gita Gopinath Proposed To Be IMF's New First Deputy Managing Director Next Year

In the role of FDMD, Gita Gopinath will take the lead on surveillance and related policies, oversee research and help foster the highest quality standards for IMF publications.

Gita Gopinath, IMF Chief Economist | Getty

New Delhi: Indian-American Gita Gopinath, the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is being further elevated and will soon be taking the charge as IMF's First Deputy Managing Director (FDMD).

IMF made the announcement on Thursday stating Gita Gopinath would replace Geoffrey Okamoto. The current FDMD will leave the IMF early next year paving way for the Indian-American.

In the role of FDMD, Gita Gopinath will take the lead on surveillance and related policies, oversee research and help foster the highest quality standards for IMF publications.

"I am delighted that Gita has decided to stay and accept the new responsibility of being our FDMD," said Kristalina Georgieva, IMF's Managing Director.

“I am honored and humbled to become the IMF’s next FDMD. Over the past three years, I have had the opportunity to experience first-hand and be a part of the hugely important work done by the IMF at the intersection of rigorous economic analysis and public policy. It has been so gratifying to see the positive impact of our work on economies and on the lives of so many people worldwide," Gita Gopinath said on her being promoted as FDMD of IMF.

Earlier, Gopinath, IMF's chief economist for three years, was scheduled to return to her academic position at Harvard University in January 2022.

Under Gopinath's leadership, the IMF's Research Department had gone from strength to strength, particularly highlighting its contributions in multilateral surveillance via the World Economic Outlook, a new analytical approach to help countries respond to international capital flows (the integrated policy framework), and Gopinath's recent work on a pandemic plan to end the COVID-19 crisis by setting targets to vaccinate the world at a feasible cost, said the IMF's Managing Director.

(With PTI Inputs)