Kristalina Georgieva was named managing director and executive board chair of the International Monetary Fund. Her five-year term begins Oct. 1. Georgieva, a Bulgarian economist, is the first person from an emerging market economy to lead the IMF. Georgieva has been the CEO of the World Bank since January 2017 and served as interim president of the World Bank Group from February until April of this year. In 2010, she was named commissioner for international cooperation, humanitarian aid and crisis response for the European Commission before being promoted to vice president for budget and human resources.
“It is a huge responsibility to be at the helm of the IMF at a time when global economic growth continues to disappoint, trade tensions persist, and debt is at historically high levels. As I noted in my statement to the executive board, our immediate priority is to help countries minimize the risk of crises and be ready to cope with downturns. Yet, we should not lose sight of our long-term objective — to support sound monetary, fiscal and structural policies to build stronger economies and improve people’s lives. This means also dealing with issues like inequalities, climate risks and rapid technological change,” Georgieva said.
