Gita Gopinath quits IMF to rejoin Harvard Economics Faculty

Gita Gopinath quits IMF to rejoin Harvard Economics Faculty

Gita Gopinath, first Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is leaving the Fund to rejoin Harvard University as a professor in the Economics Department, according to an official statement by the IMF. Gopinath resigned from her post at the IMF more than a year before her tenure ends.

In the release, the IMF said, Gopinath will be leaving the Fund at the end of August to return to Harvard University, where she will be the inaugural Gregory and Ania Coffey Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics. She joined the Fund in January 2019 as Chief Economist and was promoted to First Deputy Managing Director in January 2022.

“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. She oversaw the Fund’s multilateral surveillance and analytical work on fiscal and monetary policy, debt, and international trade," said the IMF's managing director, Kristalina Georgieva.

"Gita made a strong contribution to systemic country surveillance and to Fund country programs, including those for Argentina and Ukraine. As a key member of my senior leadership team, Gita represented the Fund with integrity and fortitude in many international fora, notably the G-7 and G-20," Georgieva added.

David M. Cutler, dean of social science and Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics, said that, "Gita's academic work has fundamentally shaped our understanding of exchange rates, international capital flows, and the global financial architecture."

Cutler further added, "Having her back strengthens our standing as a top university for international macroeconomics. She is also an exceptional teacher and intellectual partner. We can't wait to welcome her home."