Michel Camdessus

France state institutions 1933.5.1.–

Managing Director of the IMF during the Asian financial crisis (1987–2000)

Born in Bayonne, Camdessus is a French economist educated at Sciences Po and the École nationale d'administration. After serving as Governor of the Banque de France in 1984–87, he was Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund from 1987 to 2000, the longest tenure in that post. In the 1997 Asian financial crisis he extended rescue packages to South Korea, Indonesia and others conditional on high interest rates, austerity and structural reform, and was criticised for ignoring the circumstances of the East Asian countries and blindly imposing the measures used in Mexico, leading to turmoil and rioting in countries such as Indonesia.