The Chinese economic muscle could lead to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) moving its head office to Beijing in a decade, says the fund’s managing director Christine Lagarde.
In a report by the Reuters news agency, Ms Lagarde said the move was “a possibility” because the fund needed to better represent emerging markets and their growing, and increasingly influential, economies.
“If we have this conversation in 10 years’ time… we might not be sitting in Washington, D.C. We’ll do it in our Beijing head office,” Lagarde said.
Speaking at the Center for Global Development, she added that the fund’s bylaws required its head office to be located in the biggest member economy. Since its launch in 1945, the fund has been based in the United States.
