George T. Abed was Director of the Middle Eastern Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from July 2002 until December 2003. Prior to taking up that position, he was Deputy Director of the IMF's Fiscal Affairs Department from 1997–2002. Mr. Abed first joined IMF staff in 1975, after a holding a position as Assistant Professor of Economics at University of California-Berkeley. On IMF staff he held various positions, progressively more senior, until 1985 when he resigned from the IMF to help establish and manage the Welfare Foundation in Geneva, Switzerland, as Director General. Mr. Abed rejoined IMF staff in 1993. Mr. Abed holds a Ph.D. in Economics from University of California, Berkeley.

As Director of the Middle Eastern Department, Mr. Abed was responsible for the IMF's work in 24 countries, including those in the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Mashreq, the Maghreb, and Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan. The Fiscal Affairs Department, where Mr. Abed spent part of his Fund career, provides policy advice and technical assistance on public finance issues to IMF member countries.

Mr. Abed's areas of interest include international and development economics, fiscal reform, corruption, energy economics, and development of the Palestinian economy; he has published widely in these areas, including: Governance, Corruption, and Economic Performance, 2002 (co-editor with Sanjeev Gupta); Fiscal Reforms in Low-Income Countries: Experience Under IMF-Supported Programs, 1998 (with Liam Ebrill, et. al.); "Trade Liberalization and Tax Reform in the Southern Mediterranean Countries," IMF, WP/98/49; The Economic Viability of a Palestinian State, Institute for Palestine Studies, Washington, D.C., 1990; The Palestinian Economy: Studies in Development Under Prolonged Occupation (editor), Routledge, 1988; "Labor Absorption in Industry: An Analysis with Reference to Egypt," Oxford Economic Papers, November 1975; and "The Economy and Finances of Saudi Arabia," IMF Staff Papers, July 1974 (with Said Hitti); and other papers in professional journals.