The Australian Government has decided to nominate Mr Richard Murray, a senior official with the Commonwealth Treasury, for appointment as an Alternate Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from March 2005 to October 2006.
On the acceptance of his nomination, Mr Murray will assist the Executive Director in representing a constituency of countries within the IMF comprising Australia, Kiribati, Korea, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Seychelles, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Alternate Executive Directors are employees of the IMF and their salaries and other allowances are met by the Fund.
The Australian Government intends that Mr Murray would be nominated by Australia to fill the position of Executive Director for a two year period when it becomes vacant in November 2006.
Australia has been a member of the IMF since 1947. The IMF is an organisation of 184 member countries, established to promote international monetary cooperation and exchange stability, to foster economic and employment growth; and to provide temporary financial assistance to countries under adequate safeguards to help ease balance of payments adjustment. Following the financial crises of 1997 98 a key task of the IMF has been to strengthen the stability of the international financial system and to review its future role and operations.
Mr Murray is a highly experienced Treasury officer who has held various senior executive positions in the Treasury covering macroeconomic forecasting, infrastructure and competition policy, banking and finance, taxation policy, international economy, foreign investment, budget policy and debt management. Mr Murray was also the Treasury representative at the Australian High Commission, London (1993 96), Executive Member of the Foreign Investment Review Board (1998), and head of the Treasury’s Domestic Economy Division (1998-2000). In 2000, Mr Murray moved to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet as head of its Economic Division. He returned to the Treasury as Chief Adviser (Strategy) in 2001 and was promoted to his current position as head of the new Fiscal Group in July 2002.