(10 Nov 1999) English/Nat
The head of the International Monetary Fund is resigning.
Michel Camdessus announced on Tuesday he will step down early next year.
The 66-year-old Frenchman told I-M-F employees that personal reasons were behind his decision.
With the world economic outlook brightening, he says now is the right time.
Before hastily gathered I-M-F employees, Michel Camdessus told his staff he is leaving his post early next year.
With two years remaining in his third term, the head of the I-M-F is stepping down.
SOUNDBITE: "The moment has come for me to ask you to discharge me of my responsibilities as Managing Director, preferably before the middle of February, by which time I will already be in my 14th year of service in the I-M-F. Personal reasons, of which I did not even want to hear, particularly as long as we were in the midst of the Asian crisis, lead me to this decision; a decision I would never have though would be so hard to take."
SUPER CAPTION: Michel Camdessus, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund
Camdessus has held the job of managing director for 13 years - longer than any other official in the history of the multinational money lending agency.
His departure has been rumored for some time.
Camdessus and the I-M-F came under heavy criticism for the agency's handling of the Asian currency crisis.
Despite more than 100 (B) billion dollars in bailout packages, the crisis pushed more than 40 percent of the global economy into recession.
But at a press conference after his announcement, the I-M-F head said he was proud of his agency's efforts in the Asian crisis.
And, what did he consider a frustrating failure?
SOUNDBITE: "Not to have been able to reverse significantly, this propensity of the world to take this institution as a scapegoat for whatever catastrophe is around."
SUPER CAPTION: Michel Camdessus, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund
Over the past two years, Camdessus has been under tremendous pressure, as he was forced to keep up a relentless travel schedule.
After his successor is chosen, the Frenchman plans to go home.
SOUNDBITE: "It's extremely simple - to go to my country and to enjoy then my constitutional duties to life, freedom, and pursuit of happiness."
SUPER CAPTION: Michel Camdessus, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund
Among names that have been mentioned as possible successors are the current head of the Bank of France, Jean-Claude Trichet; Italian Treasury Director General Mario Draghi; and Andrew Crockett of Britain, who is head of the Bank of International Settlements in Switzerland.
Camdessus had travelled to Jakarta in January of 1998 to throw a 40 (b) billion dollar lifeline out to Indonesia.
In return, then President Suharto promised tough financial reforms.
And in November of 1998, Camdessus welcomed South Korean President Kim Dae-jung to Washington.
The South Korean leader was trying to get his country's economy back on track following the disastrous Asian financial crisis, with some multi-million dollar help from the I-M-F and World Bank.
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