IMF Latin America chief quits for TV gig

Nicolas Eyzaguirre. AFP

WASHINGTON – The director of the International Monetary Fund’s Latin America operations has resigned to become the head of a Chile’s Canal 13 television network, the IMF said Thursday.

Nicolas Eyzaguirre, who took up his latest IMF post in January 2009, will leave his job immediately but his resignation will only be effective from the end of August, the IMF said in a statement.

His tenure “coincided with a tumultuous period for the world economy in which the countries of North America were at the center of the crisis while Latin America was an island of stability,” IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said.

“Nicolas’s vision and high-level economic policy making experience were instrumental in the Fund’s successful engagement in the region over the last three and half years.”

Chile’s former minister of finance from 2000 to 2006, Eyzaguirre was previously the IMF executive director for six Latin American nations – Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay – in 1998-2000.