Global Policy Forum

By Joseph Kahn

Stanley Fischer, who engineered record bailouts for several of the largest developing countries as the day-to-day manager of the International Monetary Fund, announced that he would leave his post by the year's end. His resignation clears a path for Bush administration officials, several of whom have been vocal critics of the fund's lending to Russia and several Asian countries in recent years, to help select a person to fill the No. 2 post, which by tradition is held by an American.

Mr. Fischer, 57, a former economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said today that he had resigned the post voluntarily. Other fund officials and a spokesman for the United States Treasury Department were quick to agree, with several people saying that Mr. Fischer had been urged to stay on longer. Mr. Fischer briefly served as the fund's top official last year while the United States, Germany and several other European nations waged a protracted and sometimes bitter diplomatic contest over who would serve in the top post. The post eventually went to Horst Kí¶hler, a former German government official, following the tradition of naming a European to the job but disappointing some developing nations that had nominated Mr. Fischer for the job.

Mr. Fischer said at the time that he would stay on under Mr. Kí¶hler. But fund officials said they were not surprised that Mr. Fischer chose to resign after slightly less than a year under Mr. Kí¶hler. Mr. Fischer said today he would continue in his post until later this year, when a successor is found. "I will leave the fund with the highest respect for this institution and the deepest regard and affection for its dedicated and outstanding staff," Mr. Fischer said today.

Mr. Kí¶hler and Mr. Fischer did not always work well together, several fund officials said. Mr. Kí¶hler came into office vowing to rectify what some critics had identified as weaknesses, including the number of conditions attached to its loans, these people said. They added that Mr. Fischer did not always agree with Mr. Kí¶hler about how, and how quickly, to enact changes. Mr. Kí¶hler issued a statement that was highly supportive of Mr. Fischer and expressed regret for his departure.

Since joining the fund in 1994, Mr. Fischer has overseen the details of its most economically challenging and politically delicate rescue operations. He helped infuse money into Mexico after the crash of the peso in 1995. That effort, judged by many economists as successful, was quickly followed by the Asian financial contagion beginning in 1997. Mr. Fischer flew among South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia, arranging giant loan packages in exchange for commitments to open markets and streamline regulations. Those bailouts are still a much debated topic in economic circles.

The IMF's repeated loans to Russia in the 1990's are almost universally seen as failures. But Mr. Fischer and his supporters in the Clinton administration defended them as necessary gambles, given Russia's strategic importance. A technocrat who espoused classical views of economic management, Mr. Fischer defended the fund's efforts to force nations to tighten their fiscal belts and restrain spending even as they grappled with economic slowdowns.

Critics of the fund, including street protesters, members of Congress and both liberals and conservatives in academia, have often argued that it interferes too much in the financial affairs of the developing world and achieves poor results. But the critics have rarely aimed at Mr. Fischer himself, whose mastery of details, dry wit and easy diplomacy leaven his otherwise orthodox style.

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