(04/02/2005 - 11/30/2007)

George T. Abed recently retired from the position of special advisor to the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF),was until recently Director of the Middle East and Central Asia department of the IMF since July 2002. Prior to taking up this position, he was Deputy Director of the IMF's Fiscal Affairs Department from 1997–2002. Mr. Abed first joined IMF staff in 1975, after a holding a position as Assistant Professor of Economics at University of California-Berkeley. On IMF staff he held various positions, progressively more senior, until 1985 when the left IMF to help establish and manage the Welfare Foundation in Geneva, Switzerland, as Director General. Mr. Abed rejoined IMF staff in 1993. Mr. Abed holds a PhD. in Economics from University of California, Berkeley. As Director of the Middle East Department, Mr. Abed had responsibility for the IMF's work in 32 countries, including those in the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Mashreq, the Maghreb, and Central Asia. The Fiscal Affairs Department, where Mr. Abed spent part of his Fund career, provides policy advice and technical assistance on public finance issues to IMF member countries.

Mr. Abed's areas of interest include international trade and finance, capital markets, economic development in the middle east and north Africa, fiscal reform, and the Palestinian economy. He has published widely in these areas, including: Governance, Corruption, and Economic Performance, 2002 (co-editor with Sanjeev Gupta); the Challenges of Growth and Globalization in the Middle East and North Africa, (with Hamid Davoodi); Fiscal Reforms in Low-Income Countries: Experience Under IMF-Supported Programs, 1998 (with Liam Ebrill, et. al.); "Trade Liberalization and Tax Reform in the Southern Mediterranean Countries," IMF, WP/98/49; The Economic Viability of a Palestinian State, Institute for Palestine Studies, Washington, D.C., 1990; The Palestinian Economy: Studies in Development Under Prolonged Occupation (editor), 1988; and numerous papers and articles in professional journals.