Press Release No. 04/43

Press Release: IMF Managing Director Horst Köhler Resigns Following Nomination as German President

March 4, 2004

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Horst Köhler announced today he will resign from his post, effective at the end of business today, following his nomination for the German Presidency. Effective immediately, the Managing Director will excuse himself from official IMF business.

First Deputy Managing Director Anne Krueger will be Acting Managing Director until the IMF's Executive Board names a successor to Mr. Köhler.

"I am very honored to be nominated for the office of President of the Federal Republic of Germany, and I have accepted the nomination," Mr. Köhler said in a statement to the Executive Board and staff. "The election, which in Germany is the responsibility of the Federal Assembly, will take place on May 23, 2004. In conformity with the rules of the Fund, I will resign as Managing Director of the Fund effective at the end of business today. Anne Krueger takes over as Acting Managing Director immediately.

"I accepted the nomination with `a laughing and a crying eye', as we say in German. I fully expected to stay at the IMF and continue working on our unfinished agenda," he said. "I will leave the IMF with the deepest appreciation of its integrity and its dedication to helping its members. I would like to thank the Executive Board, my management colleagues, and the staff for their professionalism and their support over the past four years. You can be sure that I will maintain an active interest in the role of the Fund in helping to build a better world."

Before joining the IMF in May 2000, Mr. Köhler, 61, a German national, was President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, a post to which he was appointed in September 1998.

Mr. Köhler was President of the German Savings Bank Association from 1993 to 1998. From 1990 to 1993, he served as Germany's Deputy Minister of Finance, and was responsible for international financial and monetary relations.

Mr. Köhler earned a doctorate in economics and political sciences from the University of Tübingen, where he was a scientific research assistant at the Institute for Applied Economic Research from 1969 to 1976, and received the title of Honorary Professor from the University of Tübingen last year. Between 1976 and 1989, he held various positions in Germany's Ministries of Economics and Finance. He is married to Eva Köhler and has two children.