IMF Taps Eyzaguirre for Western Hemisphere

Former Chilean finance minister Nicolas Eyzaguirre has joined the IMF as director of the western hemisphere department – the Fund’s man in LatAm – effective January 1. He replaces Anoop Singh, who was appointed director of the Fund’s Asia Pacific department as part of an ongoing refocusing effort. “[Eyzaguirre] is credited for sound macroeconomic policies and economic reforms that have contributed to the strong economic performance of Chile since 2000,” says IMF MD Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Eyzaguirre is professor of economics at the University of Chile, where he was finance minister in 2000-2006. The former central bank director of economic studies and IMF executive director for Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay in 1998-2000, was the LatinFinance Man of the Year in 2003.