IMF revamps climate, gender units after Bessent bashed lender over ‘mission creep’

The International Monetary Fund, a post-World War II global lender designed to bail out debt-laden economies, is set to revamp its climate change and gender units after pressure from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, people familiar with the matter have told The Post.

The changes, first reported by Bloomberg News, will see both the IMF’s climate and development and inclusion and gender units folded into the DC-based body’s “macro-financial and structural policies” division, the sources said.

“In recent years, the IMF has become exceedingly woke,” said one DC insider. “So it’s a pleasant surprise to see them take a small step in the right direction.”

Nile Gardiner, the director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation, told The Post that “clearly zero patience in Washington” for these kinds of policies that he said “completely undermines the effectiveness of the international bodies like the IMF.”

“The IMF is pursuing a far-left climate change and gender agenda, which is completely unrelated to the role of the IMF. The American people have had enough of woke left-wing ideology running riot through international institutions. This madness has to end,” the former aide to the late British prime minister added.

The Post has approached the IMF and the Treasury Department for comment.

The move comes after Bessent used a speech in April to accuse the IMF and its sister organization, the World Bank, of “mission creep” by promoting left-wing causes over economic stability and rein in excessive spending.

“Focus on these areas is crowding out its work on critical macroeconomic issues,” the hedge fund mogul said at the time, “The IMF has been whistling past the graveyard.”

Papers written by the Fund’s experts have, in the past, backed causes such as net-zero and carbon taxes. The institution also takes part in providing data for the controversial global gender inequality index.

But shortly after Bessent’s April broadside, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva shrugged off his criticism and claimed the organization did little in terms of climate change policy.

“People think we have climate experts, we don’t,” she said. “That’s not our job.”

The United States is the largest shareholder in the Fund, holding just over a 17% stake. It means any administration wields incredible influence in setting policy because major decisions require an 85% majority.

The move to effectively sideline the climate and gender teams will be formally rubber-stamped at the upcoming Fall meetings for both bodies in mid-October, the people familiar with the matter said.

The IMF was created out of the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944 in New Hampshire, where the US, the UK, and the former Soviet Union discussed how to shape the postwar global economy.

The 191-member body is often described as a lender of last resort because it helps bail out debt-laden economies, although critics say that it often demands austerity measures that are too harsh.

This global financial firefighter was at the forefront of the European debt crisis in 2008 when Eurozone economies were sent into meltdown after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

It asked nations such as Greece, Ireland, and Spain to slash social spending and trim back the public sector in return for loans backed by richer IMF members.

Ironically, officials at the global lender also enjoy lavish perks virtually unheard of in the private sector – and which many people in the countries that take its loans can only dream of.

The Post revealed in December how its staffers can gain cut-rate access to an upmarket Maryland golf and country club that costs regular Joes at least $20,000 to join.

The IMF’s top directors can rake in around $437,000 annually, compared with $52,000 for junior staffers, according to the latest publicly available salary information.

They can also pick up eye-popping retirement benefits, including “a generous final salary” pension and comprehensive worldwide health insurance, the IMF’s recruitment page states.

This newspaper has also uncovered the lavish travel policy at its sister body, the World Bank.

It sees jet-setting bureaucrats enjoy the use of first-class international travel – and sometimes even private aircraft for the body’s top brass – when they head abroad to lecture developing countries on raising living standards.