With effect from 5 May 2022, Dr. Murtaza Syed, the senior-most Deputy Governor and a former official of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), would be the new Acting Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
Dr. Syed has taken up the position in light of Section 10(2) of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Act 1956 (amended), and has therefore succeeded Dr. Reza Baqir, whose term ended on 4 May, according to the notification.
Prior to this, the federal government named Dr. Syed as the Deputy Governor of the SBP for three years on January 27, 2020.
He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Oxford’s Nuffield College and has more than 20 years of experience in macroeconomic research and policymaking, including 16 years at the IMF.
He worked on IMF initiatives and monitoring of emerging markets and advanced economies such as the Eurozone, Japan, and Korea.
Dr. Syed also handled IMF training and technical support projects around the world, and between 2010 and 2014, he was the IMF’s Deputy Resident Representative in China.
Dr. Syed began his career as a Senior Policy Analyst at the Human Development Center in Islamabad, where he worked under former Finance Minister Dr. Mahbub ul Haq.
Later, he worked for the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), a London-based public policy think tank, where he did research on company investment and employment behavior, as well as evaluating Latin American anti-poverty programs.
Dr. Syed has produced papers on a variety of macroeconomic themes, including fiscal and monetary policy, financial stability, economic crises, investment, demographics, poverty, and inequality, in addition to teaching public policy at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford.
To read our blog on “Fate of Governor of State Bank will be decided by PM,” click here.
