Gita Gopinath is the Gregory and Ania Coffey Professor of Economics at Harvard University and Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. She is one of the world’s leading economists in international finance and macroeconomics, with expertise spanning dollar dominance, exchange rates, trade and investment, international financial crises, monetary policy and debt.
Previously, she served as First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund from January 2022 to August 2025 and, prior to that, as Chief Economist of the IMF from January 2019 to January 2022. As the IMF’s second-highest-ranking official, she represented the Fund at G7 and G20 meetings, engaged with governments and global institutions, and oversaw major IMF programmes, including those for Argentina and Ukraine.
As Chief Economist, Gopinath led thirteen releases of the World Economic Outlook, including forecasts on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy. She also co-authored the “Pandemic Proposal”, which set globally endorsed targets for vaccinating the world and helped shape international policy discussions on economic recovery, global health resilience and financial stability.
Dr. Gopinath is a member of President Emmanuel Macron’s G7 Economists Group on global imbalances, the European Investment Bank’s Global Advisory Council and the Chicago Federal Reserve’s Financial Stability Advisory Council. She is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Econometric Society, and a member of the Group of Thirty.
Her work has received wide international recognition. In 2021, the Financial Times named her among the “25 Most Influential Women of the Year”. She has also been named among Bloomberg’s “50 People Who Defined 2019”, recognised as a “Top Global Thinker” by Foreign Policy, and included by Time Magazine among the “Women Who Broke Major Barriers to Become Firsts”. She is frequently sought after by governments, central banks, multinational organisations and global institutions for her insights on economic policy, geopolitics and the future of global growth.
Dr. Gopinath received her Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University in 2001, after earning a B.A. from Lady Shri Ram College and M.A. degrees from Delhi School of Economics and the University of Washington.
