The International Monetary Fund abandoned, at the last minute, the nomination of the leading candidate for the position of chief economist after becoming aware of critical statements made by him about the economic policies of the Donald Trump administration, according to sources cited by the Financial Times. The fund, based in Washington, was already preparing to announce, at the beginning of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, the selection of Portuguese economist Ricardo Reis, a professor at the London School of Economics, to lead the research department and occupy the position of economic counselor. The institution, however, unexpectedly backed down from the decision.
According to three sources heard by the Financial Times, the last-minute change occurred after the IMF revisited previous statements by Reis in which the economist criticized the trade tariffs adopted by the American president. The article does not specify exactly what these statements were or when they were made. In July, the IMF appointed Silvana Tenreyro, a former member of the monetary policy committee of the Bank of England, to the position of chief economist, after having backed down from the selection of Reis.
