Gita Gopinath, the No. 2 official at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will leave her post at the end of August to return to Harvard University, the IMF said in a statement on Monday.

An Indian-born US citizen, Gopinath’s departure came as a surprise to some within the IMF and appears to have been initiated by her, according to Reuters. No comment was immediately available from the US Treasury, which holds the dominant US share in the Fund. While European countries traditionally appoint the IMF’s managing director, the US Treasury typically recommends the First Deputy Managing Director.

FIRST WOMAN TO SERVE AS IMF CHIEF ECONOMIST

Gopinath will become the inaugural Gregory and Ania Coffey Professor of Economics in Harvard’s Department of Economics. She first joined the IMF in 2019 as Chief Economist — becoming the first woman to serve in that role. She was promoted to First Deputy Managing Director in January 2022.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva will name a successor to Gopinath “in due course,” the statement added.

Kristalina Georgieva offered a glowing tribute, describing Gopinath as “a rare combination of brilliance and humility,” and credited her with helping steer the IMF through some of the most volatile economic periods in recent history.

“Gita came to the Fund as a highly respected academic in macroeconomics and international finance,” Georgieva said. “Admiration for Gita only grew through her time at the Fund, where her analytical rigor was paired with practical policy advice to the membership during an especially challenging period, which included the pandemic, wars, the cost-of-living crisis, and major shifts in the global trading system.”

Gopinath played a pivotal role during the COVID-19 pandemic. She co-authored the IMF’s Pandemic Plan, a landmark initiative that set global vaccination targets at feasible costs.

“As Chief Economist, Gita ensured that the World Economic Outlook remained the preeminent report on the global economy—an especially impressive achievement during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Georgieva added.

She also spearheaded the development of the Integrated Policy Framework (IPF), which provides countries with tools to design macroeconomic and financial stability strategies tailored to their needs.

“She represented the Fund with integrity and fortitude in many international fora, notably the G-7 and G-20,” Georgieva noted.

In her farewell message, Gopinath expressed gratitude for a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to work at the IMF, thanking both Georgieva and former IMF chief Christine Lagarde, who had appointed her as Chief Economist.

“I now return to my roots in academia,” Gopinath said, “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.”

– Ends

With inputs from Reuters