The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that First Deputy Managing Director (FDMD) Gita Gopinath will step down at the end of August to return to Harvard University. She will assume the newly established role of the Gregory and Ania Coffey Professor of Economics in the university’s Department of Economics.

Gopinath, an Indian American economist, joined the IMF in January 2019 as Chief Economist and was promoted to FDMD in January 2022.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva praised Gopinath’s leadership in a statement issued on July 21, calling her “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 emphasized that admiration for Gopinath grew during her tenure, particularly as she guided the IMF’s analytical and policy work through a series of global crises—including the COVID-19 pandemic, wars, inflationary pressures, and disruptions in international trade.

“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 rapidly changing global economic environment,” Georgieva said. She added that Gopinath played a key role in multilateral surveillance and policy development in areas such as fiscal and monetary policy, debt sustainability, and trade, while also contributing significantly to country programs including those for Argentina and Ukraine.

As the IMF’s first female Chief Economist, Gopinath is credited with ensuring the World Economic Outlook maintained its status as the leading global economic forecast, especially during the pandemic. She also led the development of the Integrated Policy Framework (IPF), a tool designed to help countries craft effective macroeconomic and financial stability strategies.

In addition, she co-authored the Fund’s Pandemic Plan, offering a blueprint for ending the COVID-19 crisis by proposing realistic global vaccination targets—an effort widely praised for addressing a critical international policy gap.

Reflecting on her time at the IMF, 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.” 

She also expressed appreciation to both Kristalina Georgieva and former IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde “for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to serve the IMF’s membership during a period of unprecedented challenges.”

Looking ahead, Gopinath said she is excited to return to academia to pursue research in international finance and macroeconomics and mentor the next generation of economists.

A successor to Gopinath will be named in due course, the IMF said.

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