Rogoff to leave IMF to return to Harvard FUND'S CHIEF ECONOMIST:: [LONDON 2ND EDITION]

The International Monetary Fund announced yesterday that Ken Rogoff, its chief economist, would be leaving the Fund in the autumn to return to academia.

Mr Rogoff, who was appointed in June 2001 as part of a swath of new appointments at the top of the IMF, will resume his post at Harvard University, from where he is on a two-year leave of absence.

"For reasons having largely to do with a desire to devote more of my time to research and teaching, I have decided to return to Harvard University next fall, after the Fund's annual meetings," Mr Rogoff said.

After a hesitant start at the IMF, in which he made and then withdrew a prediction that the US was certain to go into recession, Mr Rogoff has developed and articulated a trenchant and wide- ranging set of views on the global economy.

At the IMF's recent spring meetings in Washington, he provoked a debate by saying that the big central banks should increase their transparency, urging both the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank to adopt symmetrical inflation targets.

Mr Rogoff, who is a former chess grandmaster, turned 50 this month.

Although the US administration had some hand in his appointment in 2001, Mr Rogoff has also emerged as a consistent critic of the large US current account and fiscal deficits, contradicting the administration's view that the current account is a symbol of the strength of investment in the US.

Since Mr Rogoff will not be leaving the institution until September or October, the Fund will have some time to name his successor. Mr Rogoff and his predecessor are both US citizens, though - unlike the IMF's first deputy managing director position - a candidate from outside the US is quite possible.

Horst Kohler, managing director of the IMF, said: "In his role as the economic counsellor, Ken has been an integral part of the core economic team at the Fund, providing sound and balanced judgment on the wide range of policy and operational issues facing the institution."