Press Release No. 06/226

Press Release: IMF Managing Director de Rato Proposes Appointment of Murilo Portugal as Deputy Managing Director

October 23, 2006

Mr. Rodrigo de Rato, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), today proposed the appointment of Mr. Murilo Portugal to the position of Deputy Managing Director. Mr. Portugal, a Brazilian national, was until recently Deputy Minister of Finance of Brazil and served as an Executive Director of the IMF between 1998-2005. He will succeed Mr. Agustín Carstens, who last week left the Fund to accept an appointment in Mexico President-elect Felipe Calderon's transition team (see Press Release No. 06/220).

In announcing the proposed appointment, Mr. de Rato said, "Murilo Portugal is ideally qualified to succeed Agustín Carstens as Deputy Managing Director of the IMF. Murilo possesses economic skills and rich experience in the government of a major emerging market economy, and, in addition, knows the Fund extremely well, having served as an Executive Director for seven years.

"Murilo's experience of the Executive Board and his perspective as a senior policy-maker and a leading reformer in his native Brazil would be great assets as a Deputy Managing Director of the IMF. He brings a demonstrated capacity for persuasive representation of member countries and a track record of effective diplomacy."

In accepting the proposed appointment, Mr. Portugal said, "I am delighted and honored to be proposed for the position of Deputy Managing Director of the IMF, especially the prospect of coming back to work at the Fund, an institution with a superb staff and a fine tradition of consensus-building. I regard this as a rare opportunity to serve all the IMF's 184 country members at a time of great importance for the Fund as it implements its Medium-Term Strategy. And I hope that, in particular, I can draw on my experience as a policymaker in Brazil and as the representative for a wide range of countries on the IMF's Executive Board to engage the Fund even more effectively with its entire membership."

The Managing Director selects and appoints the Deputy Managing Directors of the IMF. These appointments require approval of the Fund's Executive Board and, in making the selection of Mr. Portugal, Mr. de Rato has, as is the practice for such appointments, consulted with the Executive Board regarding the type of qualifications that, in the view of the Executive Board, a Deputy Managing Director should possess.

Mr. Portugal's appointment, which will be considered by the IMF Executive Board in the coming days, would be to a five-year term.

Background

Mr. Portugal, 58, was Deputy Finance Minister of Brazil from 2005-06. Between 1998-2005, he was Executive Director at the IMF, where he represented Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guyana, Haiti, Panama, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. Between 1996-2000, he was an Executive Director at the World Bank Group. Before that, he served in senior positions in Brazil, including as the Secretary of the National Treasury, and at the Office of President, and at the Finance and Planning Ministries. He has also served as member of the board of the Banco do Brasil and on corporate boards. Mr. Portugal, who possesses degrees in law and economics, was educated at Universidade Federal Fluminense, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and at the universities of Cambridge and Manchester in the U.K.