Egypt’s Youssef Boutros-Ghali quits IMF position

Egypt's ousted finance minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali, who was the chairman of the IMF's advisory body, the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), submitted his resignation from the committee Friday, a position he has been holding for more than three years.

In a cabinet reshuffle last week, the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, who is under the threat of being displaced following continuing political unrest in the country, fired Boutros-Ghali and placed  Samir Radwan, a former senior economist at the International Labour Organisation, as the new finance minister.

Boutros-Ghali, the IMFC chairman since October 2008, who could have continued in his position according to IMF rules, decided to step down following his removal from the Egyptian cabinet.

The IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in a statement that under Boutros-Ghali, the IMFC played an instrumental role in providing advice and guidance to help secure policy coordination for a global recovery from the financial crisis.

''The IMF has gone through a significant transformation, making it stronger and better positioned to serve its universal membership,'' Strauss-Kahn further said.

During the global economic meltdown, and subsequent European debt crisis, the IMF rendered its support to a number of nations to revive their struggling economies. The major recipients include Mexico, Belarus, Ukraine, Greece, Ireland, Romania and others.