The heavens opened as Kristalina Georgieva began her second term as managing director of the International Monetary Fund last week — and she was delighted. The Bulgarian noted that in her culture, “rain on a big day is a sign of good luck. So I cherished the downpour.”
Lord knows she’ll need it with some of the challenges coming up. During her first term, Georgieva led IMF as it navigated the challenges of COVID-19, global economic crisis, price shocks, and rising debt distress, with a performance that won her both supporters and detractors. She oversaw the issuance of Special Drawing Rights, which provided critical resources to countries, though rechanneling efforts have been slow. She has seemed to embrace working closely with the World Bank, especially under Ajay Banga — the two seemed chummy on stage at UNGA last week, talking about collaboration and impact. And she has generally been seen as leading the IMF to play a greater role in development matters, and climate, rather than just fiscal policy.
However, there are more big issues to contend with as she enters her second term. The debt problem is ever more urgent, and there’s a growing demand for reform of the international financial architecture. We’re also weeks away from a U.S. election that has anyone who works in multilateralism on the edge of their seats.