The head of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, will run for a second five-year term after being nominated by a string of European countries to lead the global lender.
The Bulgarian economist and champion of policies to tackle the climate crisis will be given the support of her home country, which said she had accepted the nomination for another term starting in September.
Bruno Le Maire, the French finance minister, said at a G20 summit meeting last weekend that Georgieva had done a “great job” leading the institution and that France would support her for a second term. Dimitar Radev, the central bank governor of Bulgaria, said she had earned the “great respect and trust” of the IMF’s member countries during her first five years at the Washington-based organisation.
Finance ministers from Spain, Poland and the Netherlands are expected to join Bulgaria and France in backing Georgieva. The support of European countries, which is expected to include the UK, will prove crucial to her re-election, given that European countries traditionally nominate a candidate to lead the IMF, though all European Union members must agree. The final decision is made by the institution’s board of directors.
Georgieva, who will be 71 in August, was the World Bank’s chief executive from 2017 before taking the IMF’s top job in October 2019.
She was almost forced out in 2021 after she was accused of being involved in doctoring data during her tenure at the World Bank. She denied any wrongdoing and was later cleared, but only after the IMF board had met seven times to consider the case against her.
Keeping Georgieva on for a second term would help answer longstanding concerns raised by emerging market and developing countries about the US-western European duopoly at the two global financial institutions, the IMF and World Bank.
Georgieva is the second woman to head the IMF and the first person from an emerging market economy. She has faced criticism for failing to end the cycle of debt and high interest rates that limit the prospects for growth across much of the developing world. Critics argue that debt relief and financial bailouts are often tied to programmes of privatisation and tax rises that cause social upheaval.
Georgieva has said she has overseen $305bn (£238bn) of lending to emerging market economies and a fivefold increase in interest-free loans to developing economies.
A self-described “eternal optimist”, Georgieva has made tough comments on member countries, including the UK government’s financial planning, and especially the recent emphasis by the Conservative administration on tax cuts at the expense of rebuilding the economy’s resilience to future shocks and reducing debts.
Radev said: “Under her leadership, the IMF has supported the global economy with large-scale financing for nearly 100 member countries as they dealt with the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the cost of living crisis.
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“Many of my colleagues, the governors of the IMF, would like to see her continue as the managing director of the institution for a second mandate.”
He said consultations would continue with European partners on a common view about a potential nomination.
