Gita Gopinath, the second-highest ranking official at the International Monetary Fund, will be leaving her role next month to rejoin Harvard University, the IMF said on Monday.
The global lender said, on return to the Ivy League university, Ms Gopinath will become the inaugural Gregory and Ania Coffey Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics. She first joined Harvard in 2005 before being appointed to the IMF as its first female chief economist in 2019.
Ms Gopinath was promoted to first deputy managing director in 2022.
“She came to the Fund as a highly respected academic in macroeconomics and international finance,” IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said.
Ms Gopinath served as the fund's chief economist during the Covid-19 pandemic, which Ms Georgieva said was an “unprecedented challenge to our membership”. Ms Gopinath also co-wrote the fund's plan on how to help end the Covid-19 crisis, which the IMF described as a key contribution in setting global vaccination targets at a doable cost.
As first deputy managing director, Ms Gopinath oversaw the fund's surveillance and analysis on fiscal and monetary policy, debt and international trade.
She most recently represented the IMF at the G20 summit in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
There, she warned that economic uncertainty remains high due to downside risks dominating the global outlook. The fund is due to release its updated global economic forecast later this month.
She also spoke about priorities for policymakers, including building resilience and boosting medium-term growth.
The fund said Ms Georgieva will name Ms Gopinath's replacement “in due course”.
“I am truly grateful for my time at the IMF, first as chief economist and then as first deputy managing director,” Ms Gopinath said.
“I now return to my roots in academia, where, I look forward to continuing to push the research frontier in international finance and macroeconomics to address global challenges, and to training the next generation of economists.”
David Cutler, dean of social science and Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics at Harvard, praised Ms Gopinath's work on exchange rates, capital flows and the global financial architecture.
"Having her back strengthens our standing as a top university for international macroeconomics," he said.
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Four motivational quotes from Alicia's Dubai talk
“The only thing we need is to know that we have faith. Faith and hope in our own dreams. The belief that, when we keep going we’re going to find our way. That’s all we got.”
“Sometimes we try so hard to keep things inside. We try so hard to pretend it’s not really bothering us. In some ways, that hurts us more. You don’t realise how dishonest you are with yourself sometimes, but I realised that if I spoke it, I could let it go.”
“One good thing is to know you’re not the only one going through it. You’re not the only one trying to find your way, trying to find yourself, trying to find amazing energy, trying to find a light. Show all of yourself. Show every nuance. All of your magic. All of your colours. Be true to that. You can be unafraid.”
“It’s time to stop holding back. It’s time to do it on your terms. It’s time to shine in the most unbelievable way. It’s time to let go of negativity and find your tribe, find those people that lift you up, because everybody else is just in your way.”
The specs: 2018 BMW R nineT Scrambler
Price, base / as tested Dh57,000
Engine 1,170cc air/oil-cooled flat twin four-stroke engine
Transmission Six-speed gearbox
Power 110hp) @ 7,750rpm
Torque 116Nm @ 6,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined 5.3L / 100km
MATCH INFO
Manchester United 6 (McTominay 2', 3'; Fernandes 20', 70' pen; Lindelof 37'; James 65')
Leeds United 2 (Cooper 41'; Dallas 73')
Man of the match: Scott McTominay (Manchester United)
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Babumoshai Bandookbaaz
Director: Kushan Nandy
Starring: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bidita Bag, Jatin Goswami
Three stars
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
