The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund has selected Ms. Kristalina Georgieva to fill the position of Director General, for a second five-year term beginning on October 1, 2024. The Board made this decision by consensus.
The Council praised Ms. Georgieva’s strong and energetic leadership during her first term in overcoming a series of major global shocks. Ms. Georgieva has led the IMF’s unprecedented response to these shocks, including agreeing to provide more than $360 billion in new financing since the start of the pandemic to 97 countries, and alleviating debt service burdens for the Fund’s poorest and most vulnerable member countries. The historical distribution of allocations from Special Drawing Rights is equivalent to $650 billion.
Under its leadership, the Fund developed innovative new financing facilities, including the Resilience and Sustainability Facility and the Food Shock Window. The IMF replenished the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust Fund, with the capacity to mobilize loans on concessional terms to the poorest member countries, and co-founded the Round Table on Global Sovereign Debt.
Georgieva says, “It is a great honor for me to have the opportunity to lead the International Monetary Fund for a second term, and I am grateful for the members’ continued confidence in me.” She added: “Global challenges require the IMF to be more effective, and I will continue to devote all my energy to serving that.”
Ms. Georgieva is a Bulgarian citizen and has been Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund since 2019. Before that, she was working at the World Bank as Executive Director since January 2017.
From February 1, 2019 to April 8, 2019, she served as interim President of the World Bank Group. She previously worked at the European Commission as Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, then Vice-President of the European Commission for Budget and Human Resources.
Ms. Georgieva holds a doctorate in economics and a master’s degree in political economy and sociology from the University of National and World Economy in Bulgaria, a university where she taught from 1977 to 1991.