Finance Minister Nigel Clarke proposed for senior IMF position
Prime Minister Andrew Holness described the announcement by managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, that she was proposing Jamaica’s Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke for the position of Deputy Managing Director of the IMF, effective October 31, 2024 as an “historic and important development”. He said, “The IMF plays an indispensable role in the world economy, promoting global financial stability and monetary cooperation, in service of its 190 member countries. As such, the position of Deputy Managing Director is global in scope”.
Holness said no citizen of Jamaica, the Caribbean or Central America has ever before served at this level in the IMF in its 80-year history. “It is to the benefit of Jamaica and the Caribbean region for one of our nationals to serve in such a consequential global position. This development is, therefore, a tremendous net gain for Jamaica and the Caribbean. Furthermore, this elevation of Minister Clarke is demonstrative of the depth, strength and capacity of my administration”.
Georgieva, who made the proposal to the IMF executive board, said that Clarke will succeed Antoinette Sayeh, who steps down on September 12, “Mr. Clarke is an exceptional public servant and policymaker, with proven leadership in institution building and economic crisis management, who has stewarded his country’s economy to a stronger and more sustainable position”. She said that since 2016, he has been the IMF’s chief counterpart on successive and historically successful programmes for Jamaica, including an Extended Fund Facility, a precautionary Stand-By Arrangement, and most recently a Precautionary Liquidity Line plus Resilience and Sustainability Facility, leaving the country with robust economic fundamentals. “Nigel also brings a wealth of experience from a stellar private sector career”, Georgieva added.
Holness said that his administration has identified successors to Clarke in both his ministerial and parliamentary responsibilities and that there would be a smooth transition in both capacities. “Further updates will be provided in due course and the public can expect policy continuity and a continuation of the economic achievements. Today, however, I wholeheartedly congratulate Dr Nigel Clarke on today’s announcement of his pending appointment as Deputy Managing Director of the IMF”, he added.
Clarke has been Jamaica’s Minister of Finance and the Public Service since March 2018. Prior to this, he served as Ambassador of Economic Affairs from 2016. The IMF said that during this period, he spearheaded ambitious national reforms, including central bank independence, creation of an independent fiscal commission, as well as other tax policy, public body governance, public procurement, public sector compensation, and public investment management reforms. It said he also led Jamaica’s economic policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic with innovative and well-targeted policy support and completed privatizations and public-private partnerships of major infrastructure assets. “Under his stewardship, Jamaica implemented a multi-layered disaster risk financing model and became the first small country to independently sponsor a catastrophe bond, with World Bank assistance. In 2023, Jamaica successfully completed its first ever international issue of a local currency denominated bond,” the IMF said.
Holness said that over the course of his public sector career, Clarke has made outstanding contributions to Jamaica and that as Ambassador of Economic Affairs, he maintained the government’s relationship with the IMF, and other multilaterals, “at a critical time and negotiated key agreements in 2016 including the early termination of the Extended Fund Facility and entry into the Precautionary Standby Agreement. “As Minister of Finance and the Public Service, he has brought creativity, imagination and passion to his job and has had many policy achievements. Some of the more impactful policy achievements, such as the substantial improvement in Jamaica’s macro-economic fundamentals, the abolition and reduction of distortionary taxes, central bank independence, the fiscal commission, multi-layered disaster risk financing, public body governance and public body rationalisation, among others, are well known.”
But Holness said that it is some of the less acknowledged accomplishments, as Finance Minister, that define his compassion for fellow Jamaicans, such as the Marcus Garvey Public Sector Graduate Scholarships, the Public Sector Debate Competition, the CARE Programme, development of the Social Pension, Public Sector Compensation reform as well many innovations at the Student’s Loan Bureau and unemployment insurance feasibility development”.
In 2022, Clarke was elected chairman of the Board of Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Inter-American Investment Corporation. Prior to his public service career, he was vice chairman and chief financial officer of the Musson Group, a regional conglomerate, having started his career as an equity derivatives trader at Goldman Sachs in London.
Clarke holds a PhD in Numerical Analysis from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and a Master of Science Degree in Applied Statistics, also from Oxford, while he was a Commonwealth Scholar. He also holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of the West Indies where he was a Jamaica Independence Scholar.
