Brazilian Ilan Goldfajn to be new IMF chief for Latin America

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazilian economist Ilan Goldfajn will be the new head of the Western Hemisphere Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), director Kristalina Georgieva announced Monday.

Goldfajn, president of the Central Bank of Brazil between 2016 and 2019, where he focused on digitalization and new financial technologies, will take office next January 3, 2022.

Georgieva highlighted, in a statement, Goldfajn’s ‘impressive career’ in public and private sectors and the ‘high academic respect’ for him.

‘His proven track record as a central banker, communicator, as well as his deep knowledge as an international financial executive and his familiarity with the work at the Fund, will be invaluable in helping our member countries in the region,’ Georgieva added in the official announcement note.

The new director for Latin America has experience at the Fund, where he worked in the 1990s, and at the World Bank, and was chief economist at Itaú Unibanco, among other Brazilian financial institutions. He is now chairman of the board of directors of Credit Suisse Brazil.

Goldfajn, 55, replaces Mexican Alejandro Werner, who recently retired from the Fund.

Under his leadership, the IMF will have to continue the complex negotiations with Argentina, a country where the institution is in talks to refinance the debt for some 44 billion dollars and agree on a new support program.

In addition, he faces an administration marked by the acute economic crisis caused by the pandemic in Latin America, which has led almost all the countries in the region to request some financial assistance from the Fund.

Goldfajn, a dual Brazilian-Israeli national, holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a master’s degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.

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