International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief economist lost – Olivier Blanchard, head of the Department of Economic Research Foundation since 2008, is leaving the post. On the eve of retirement at the April session of the IMF it became evident that Mr. Blanchard looks at the prospects of post-crisis development of the world, as well as the fund itself increasingly at odds with the more conservative estimate of economists working with the US Federal Reserve.
On the resignation of Mr Blanchard on September 1, reported yesterday in the press service of the Fund. A possible successor to this position despite the IMF’s standard practice is not yet known.
Olivier Blanchard – one of the world’s best known economists. Before joining the IMF, September 1, 2008, ie shortly before the peak of the global financial crisis, he headed the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (where he received a doctorate in economics in 1977), previously worked at Harvard University, was an adviser to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and New York. The IMF’s Olivier Blanchard duties included preparation of regular macro-economic reports, forecasts, the fund, as well as – and this is a key duty – specific policy recommendations for countries – members of the fund. From June 2011, Mr. Blanchard de facto worked in tandem with the new head of the IMF Christine Lagarde as a “Senior Economist” fund, despite the absence of a formal position in the IMF.
The achievements of the Fund during this period include his anti-crisis program (in 2008 the volume of loans amounted to about $ 600 billion, have been revised criteria for bailout) and the revision of the position in respect of policy of budgetary discipline: in 2012 during a public speaking head of the Fund, Christine Lagarde, has become a reference to the risks of worsening the crisis in the event of too austerity. The highest value of an apparent rise in support of the recommendations fit into a social-democratic political agenda and promoting the IMF crisis of non-conservative policies at the national level have the policy debate out of the crisis troubled EU economies, especially Greece, Spain and Italy, and Brazil. According to “Kommersant”, the beginning of 2015 for the same reasons and began a significant difference in the positions of the IMF with other parties –mezhdunarodnymi donors of Ukraine in matters relating to a new program to support the economy of the country.
The IMF yesterday commented on the resignation of Mr. Blanchard, rather than pointing to its role in making recommendations to countries – participants of the fund, and sharply increased in recent years, expert and analytical activity of the IMF. “Olivier Blanchard raised to a new level in terms of the reputation of the Fund of Economic Analysis”, – said yesterday Ms Lagarde.
In October 2015, Mr. Blanchard will go to work in the Peterson Institute of International Economics as a senior researcher. His departure from the fund, he commented: “Over the past eight years, I had to concentrate on the wide range of issues too, with each of them had too little time, but now I’m going to analyze them properly.” However, Olivier Blanchard confirmed the existence of a dispute over the effectiveness of the course after the IMF crisis of 2008-2009: according to Mr. Blanchard, “progress in recent years is obvious,” but “some confusion in assessing the evolution of economic policy is inevitable, given the complexity and controversial nature of the issues discussed “.
Theoretical disagreements IMF chief economist with several major experts in the field of economic policy became evident during the April session of the fund. Then Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University, former head of the National Economic Council under the President of the United States, Lawrence Summers, and a number of other major economists presented papers at academic standards rather sharply critical of the views of the IMF team on the model of development of the crisis in the global economy and provide a much more pessimistic assessment of the situation in the EU. Perhaps conditional “leftward shift” with the resignation of the IMF, Olivier Blanchard completed and the Fund in the long term will bring together their assessments of what is happening with the circle of economists who advise the US Federal Reserve, tougher approach to the ideas of “dynamic” easing of monetary policy, capital flows and limited number of other the innovations to which the IMF 2011-2012, became noticeably more tolerant.
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