Centre appoints former RBI Governor Urjit Patel as IMF's executive director

New Delhi, Aug 29, 2025

Patel's appointment comes four months after Krishnamurthy Subramanian was recalled by the government from IMF

Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel has been appointed executive director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the government said in a statement released on Friday.

The announcement came almost four months after former chief economic adviser (CEA) Krishnamurthy V Subramanian’s term was cut short at the Bretton Woods institution and he was recalled by the government.

Patel has been appointed to the post for a period of three years by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet.

A monetary economist, Patel had replaced Raghuram Rajan as the RBI governor in 2016. Before that, he served as deputy governor of the central bank for over three-and-a-half year.

He resigned from the post of RBI governor in 2018 citing personal reasons, making his stint as one of the shortest ones. Patel, during his tenure, was seemingly at loggerheads with the government on various issues, including his stance on keeping rates high even when inflation was falling, which went on to hit 1.5 per cent.

Later, Patel took over as the chairman of National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) in 2020. He had earlier held the post of vice president for investment operations in South Asia at the Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank as well.

[The Business Standard]