IMF head gets French backing for possible second term

Kristalina Georgieva has not publicly signalled her intentions and has repeatedly said that she is focused on her current job

The leader of the IMF has always been a European, picked by European nations. Picture: Bloomberg

Kristalina Georgieva, the head of the International Monetary Fund, gained support from France for a possible second term, a key vote of confidence as her current five-year term ends in September.

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, speaking in Brazil on the sidelines of a Group of 20 meeting on Wednesday, said she is doing a “great job” and his country would back her if she decided to seek another term.

Ms Georgieva, 70, has not publicly signalled her intentions. She has repeatedly said, including as recently as this week, that she is focused on her current job.

The leader of the IMF has always been a European national, picked by European nations, a post-Second World War understanding with the US, which in turn chooses the president of the World Bank. Over the IMF’s eight decades, five of 12 managing directors have been from France.

Ms Georgieva, a Bulgarian economist, led the IMF’s efforts through the covid-19 pandemic to funnel funds to countries in need as the global economy cratered, and she has helped focus attention on debt distress among developing countries. She also incorporated climate-focused factors into the fund’s analysis of countries’ finances.

Her support from the US, the fund’s biggest voting member, wavered following accusations in 2021 that she improperly influenced a World Bank ranking of China’s business climate.

Paschal Donohoe was believed to be considering a bid to lead the IMF. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA

Georgieva’s position on IMF voting shares aligns with many emerging markets, particularly China and Brazil, which have pushed for a larger voice at the institution to reflect their relative weight in the global economy.

While the Washington-based fund’s executive board elects the leader in a vote, the support of Europe and the US — together accounting for around half of all voting shares — would make it tough for other candidates to surmount.

No other candidates have been publicly proposed. Ireland’s Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe, leader of the Eurogroup finance ministers, was considering a bid to lead the IMF late last year, people familiar with the matter said at the time.

Ms Georgieva moved from the World Bank to take the top IMF job in 2019, a position she won in part because she was from an Eastern European nation, a region typically underrepresented in top institutional positions.

At the time, the IMF executive board scrapped an under-65 age restriction for the managing director as Ms Georgieva was 66 when she started the job.

• Bloomberg