Press Release No. 01/22

Press Release: First Deputy Managing Director Stanley Fischer to Leave IMF Later in 2001

May 8, 2001

Stanley Fischer, First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will leave his position later in 2001. A successor to Mr. Fischer, who joined the IMF on September 1, 1994, is expected to be named in due course by IMF Managing Director Horst Köhler.

Announcing his intention to leave, Mr. Fischer said, "I have informed the Managing Director that I will be resigning as First Deputy Managing Director and leaving the IMF later this year, once a smooth transition to my successor has been arranged. I will leave the Fund with the highest respect for this institution and the deepest regard and affection for its dedicated and outstanding staff. But after nearly seven years, I believe it is time for me to move on to other challenges. It has been a privilege to work in the Fund during these momentous years for the international financial system. I am extremely grateful to the two Managing Directors with whom I have served, Michel Camdessus and Horst Köhler, and to the authorities in member countries with whom I have had the opportunity to work so closely. And I would like to thank my Fund colleagues in management, the Executive Board, and the staff for their extraordinary support and friendship, which have made my time at the Fund such an immensely rewarding experience."

Mr. Köhler said, "Stan Fischer informed me two weeks ago of his desire to step down as First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund later this year. When I came to the IMF a year ago Stan committed to work with me at least through my initial period as Managing Director. He has been superb. In due course, there will be plenty of opportunity for the Fund —and myself —to formally express appreciation of Stan Fischer's service to this institution and its 183 members over the past seven years. Right now, I would like to confine myself to personal expression. Stan Fischer is an extraordinary economist and public servant. I have benefited enormously from his advice and support in my first year at the Fund. I have particularly benefited from his integrity and humanity. I am sorry he will be leaving so soon and I wish he had remained longer."

Mr. Fischer, 57, took up the newly created position of First Deputy Managing Director in 1994 for an initial term of five years. He was appointed to a second five-year term in September 1999.

As First Deputy Managing Director, Mr. Fischer is the second-highest ranking officer of the IMF after the Managing Director and has broad responsibilities for running the Fund, including chairing the Executive Board meetings.

Prior to taking up his position at the Fund, Mr. Fischer was the Killian Professor and the Head of the Department of Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). From January 1988 to August 1990 he served as Vice President, Development Economics and Chief Economist at the World Bank.

A U.S. national, Mr. Fischer was born in Zambia in October 15, 1943. He took the B.Sc. (Econ) and M.Sc. (Econ) at the London School of Economics from 1962-1966, and obtained his Ph.D. in economics at MIT in 1969. He was Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago until 1973, when he returned to the MIT Department of Economics as an Associate Professor. He became Professor of Economics in 1977. He has held visiting positions at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and at the Hoover Institution at Stanford.

Mr. Fischer is the author of Macroeconomics (with Rudiger Dornbusch and Richard Startz), and of several other books. He has published extensively in the professional journals.