Gita Gopinath, IMF's First Deputy Managing Director, to step down in August
Gita Gopinath, the IMF's First Deputy Managing Director, is set to depart from her position at the end of August, as announced by the International Monetary Fund. She will be returning to Harvard University. Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF Managing Director, will announce Gopinath's successor in the near future.
Reuters First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Gita Gopinath participates in a seminar during the 2025 annual IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 25, 2025. Gita Gopinath, the No. 2 official at the International Monetary Fund, will leave her post at the end of August to return to Harvard University, the IMF said in a statement on Monday. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva will name a successor to Gopinath in "due course," the IMF said. Gopinath joined the fund in 2019 as chief economist - the first woman to serve in that role - and was promoted to the role of first deputy managing director in January 2022.
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She is an alumna of the University of Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru University, where she pursued her graduation and post-graduation in Political Science. She has over five years of work experience in ed-tech and media. At The Indian Express, she writes for the UPSC section. Her interests lie in national and international affairs, governance, economy, and social issues. You can contact her via email: ... Read More
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PPP is increasingly being regarded as a more accurate measure of both GDP and per capita income. The Economist's 'Big Mac index' regularly adjusts per capita income of different countries to take into account living costs. The same theory guides purchasing power parity-based computations. The IMF explained the logic behind PPP in ranking countries across geographies: 'How fast is the global economy growing? Is China contributing more to global growth than the United States? To answer the questions, one must compare the value of the output from different countries. But each country reports its data in its own currency. 'One of the two main methods of conversion uses market exchange rates—the rate prevailing in the foreign exchange market (using either the rate at the end of the period or an average over the period). 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Another drawback of market-based rates is that they are relevant only for internationally traded goods. Nontraded goods and services tend to be cheaper in low-income than in high-income countries. A haircut in New York is more expensive than in Lima; the price of a taxi ride of the same distance is higher in Paris than in Tunis; and a ticket to a cricket game costs more in London than in Lahore. 'Indeed, because wages tend to be lower in poorer countries, and services are often relatively labour intensive, the price of a haircut in Lima is likely to be cheaper than in New York even when the cost of making tradable goods, such as machinery, is the same in both countries. Any analysis that fails to take into account these differences in the prices of nontraded goods across countries will underestimate the purchasing power of consumers in emerging market and developing countries and, consequently, their overall welfare. 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The annual average growth rate of the US economy is meanwhile projected at 2 per cent in line with its average growth rate over the past 15 years. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Thus, India's GDP (PPP), growing at 7 per cent per year, would double every 10 years and quadruple in 20 years. Using the current IMF GDP base of $14.59 trillion, India's GDP (PPP) would be around $58 trillion in 2045. How about the US economy? Again, using the current IMF GDP base of $28.78 trillion, US GDP (PPP), growing at an average of 2 per cent per year, would be around $42 trillion in 2045 against India's $56 trillion in the same year. Clearly the point where Indian GDP (PPP) overtakes US GDP (PPP) will lie at some point between 2035 and 2045, possibly around 2040. Fifteen years from now is a blink in the eye in historical terms. What about per capita income? According to the IMF's World Economic Outlook published in October 2024, India's per capita income (PPP) is $11,940. This compares to India's per capita income at market rates of around $3,000. The per capita income of the US (PPP), again according to the IMF, is $89,105. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD At current growth rates and with the population of both India and the US projected to rise by around 8-10 per cent over the next 20 years, Indian per capita income (PPP) of $11,940, growing at 7 per cent a year, could quadruple to $48,000 in 2045. US per capita income (PPP) would over the same 20 years, growing at 2 per cent a year, rise to $1,30,000 in 2045. Thus, the US in 20 years will still be thrice as wealthy as India in 2045 (compared to eight times as wealthy by PPP in 2025) but India's economy (PPP) will be larger than America's. As India negotiates tariffs with the US, both President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be aware that the decisive shift in global economic power these numbers demonstrate is well under way. The writer is an editor, author and publisher. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
