Kristalina Georgieva gets support for second term

Brussels — European Union (EU) finance ministers on Tuesday endorsed International Monetary Fund (IMF) MD Kristalina Georgieva for a second term at the helm of the lender of last resort.

Georgieva’s five-year term ends on September 30. Traditionally, European countries recommend the MD of the IMF and the US recommends the head of the World Bank.

“EU ministers agreed to jointly support Kristalina Georgieva for a second mandate as managing director of the IMF,” a spokesman for the Belgian EU presidency said.

There were no other candidates, EU officials said.

Georgieva, a Bulgarian national, is the second woman to head the IMF and the first person from an emerging market economy. She is the IMF’s 12th  managing director since its founding in 1944.

A self-described “eternal optimist”, Georgieva has led the lender through huge shocks to the global economy, from the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic just months after she took office to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Georgieva drew criticism inside and outside the IMF early on for her push to include climate change as a factor in surveillance reports on member countries’ economies and her focus on emerging market and developing economies.

She has been instrumental in securing large loans for Ukraine, overseen a revamp of Argentina’s massive loan programme and worked steadily to help China embrace sovereign debt restructurings.

She also survived a personal challenge in 2021 when the IMF’s executive board expressed its full confidence in her after reviewing allegations that she pressured staff to alter data to favour China while working at the World Bank.

Reuters