World Bank President Announces Upcoming Resignation

World Bank President David Malpass will step down from his post as head of the development institution by June 30, the organization said in a statement released on Wednesday (February 15), without specifying the reason for his resignation

World Bank President Announces Upcoming Resignation

World Bank President David Malpass will step down from his post as head of the development institution by June 30, the organization said in a statement released on Wednesday (February 15), without specifying the reason for his resignation. departure. 66-year-old David Malpass, 13th president of the Washington institution, informed the board of directors on Wednesday of his intention to leave the position he held for four years, the statement said.

The World Bank Group "is fundamentally sound, financially viable and well positioned to increase its development impact in the face of pressing global crises", the future ex-president said, quoted in the press release, seeing it as "an opportunity for a transition of smooth steering". "As I pursue new challenges, I would like to thank all of our staff and our boards of directors," the American said in a note sent to World Bank teams, and which Agence France-Presse was able to to consult.

David Malpass has, during his four years in office, "focused on finding stronger policies to increase economic growth, reduce poverty, improve living standards and reduce the burden of public debt", said underlined the World Bank in its press release.

“Over the past four years, the five institutions of the World Bank Group – International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (Bird), International Development Assistance (IDA), International Finance Corporation (IFC), Multilateral Agency Guarantee Investments (Miga) and ICSID – responded quickly to global crises, mobilizing a record $440 billion in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, war in Ukraine, severe global economic downturn, unsustainable debt burden, climate change and shortages of food, fertilizer and energy.

David Malpass was, before his arrival at the World Bank, Undersecretary of the Treasury for International Affairs in the administration of Republican Donald Trump, of which he was a faithful. An unspoken rule assigns the leadership of the World Bank to an American and that of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to a European.