Montek in race for IMF top job?

Source:NEW YORK:AGENCIES,TOI: Nov 29, 2010, 06.06am IST


 Top Indian policy planner Montek Singh Ahluwalia figures among the probables to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn as the next chief of International Monetary Fund, a report has said. 

Noting that the clout and role of the international lender has increased substantially in the emerging markets, the New York Times reported that someone from the developing world was likely to succeed IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn. 

Naming Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, among the probable successors to Kahn, the report said IMF's incumbent chief might run for the French presidency in 2012. 

"Whatever he (Kahn) decides, his successor is likely to be someone from the developing world. 


"Frequently mentioned names include Mohamed A El-Erian, the American-born son of an Egyptian diplomat and an economist who leads the giant bond investor Pimco; Montek Singh Ahluwalia, a senior Indian planning official; and Arminio Fraga and Guillermo Ortiz, former heads of the central banks of Brazil and Mexico, respectively," the daily said. 


Ahluwalia has also served at the IMF and its sister institution the World Bank, India's finance secretary and commerce secretary, among others, the report said. 

Prior to taking over as the Planning Commission's Deputy Chairman in July 2004, he was the Director (Independent Evaluation Office) at the IMF in Washington for three years. He had also worked as an economist at the World Bank from 1968 to 1971. 

A French economist, Kahn has been at the helm of the 187-nation body IMF since 2007 and is also credited with bringing the multilateral lender into the spotlight. G20 leaders, at the recent summit, agreed to shift over 6% voting power in IMF to emerging market economies, including India and China, to reflect the new world order. Once the quota reform is implemented, India's rank in IMF would improve to the 8th position from the current 11th in terms of quota.

India to play major role in Asia's growth: IMF

Source:PTI, Apr 25, 2010, 03.54pm IST

WASHINGTON: India is now integrating more with the rest of Asia and will play a major role in the Asia's growth, top officials of the International Monetary Fund has said.

"You have a very rapidly growing large economy in the South Asia region, and that is India, and India is now also integrating much more with the rest of Asia," Kalpana Kochhar, IMF Deputy Director of the Asia Pacific Department told reporters late yesterday.

"For example, trade between China and India is growing rapidly. Of course, it is mostly imports from China-but it has grown very rapidly in recent years. So prospects for integration both in the South Asia region amongst themselves and with the rest of Asia I think have greatly improved and will continue to do so," she said.

IMF Director, Asia Pacific Department, Anoop Singh said that the fund expects Asia to continue leading the global recovery and grow by about 7 per cent this year and next year.

"As is now well-known, China and India will again lead Asia's growth with growth rates of 10 and 8.8 per cent this year," he said.

While the pattern of recovery has varied in Asia, as it has in other regions, Singh said it is important to note that both the more domestically oriented economies such as China, India and Indonesia as well as the more export-oriented economies are experiencing strong upturns.

Responding to a question, Singh said the IMF expects output gaps to close this year in a number of economies, including countries in South Asia such as India.

"Therefore, it is not surprising that inflation has begun to turn up. I recently presented an outlook that shows how expectations have moved up. There is a significant contribution to higher inflation coming from food and energy prices.

"There are reasons for that increase in food and energy prices, so we are not yet seeing an increase in underlying inflation at the same rate at which we are seeing a rise in overall inflation," he said.

He said that there is a clear commitment in many countries to ensure that inflationary expectations do not broaden to result in higher underlying inflation.

"So we are seeing monetary policy already being tightened in a number of countries. For example, India moved the second time just last week," Singh said.