WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund will start a phased return to in-person work at its headquarters starting June 1 after more than a year of remote work due to the coronavirus pandemic, IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said on Thursday.
“After remote working for the past year, we will resume limited operations at our Washington, DC, headquarters, with a phased return of staff to our buildings beginning June 1,” Rice told a regular briefing.
Rice said the easing of work-at-home status reflected the improving health and safety conditions in the U.S. capital, but many aspects of the IMF’s virtual mode of operation would continue.
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva last month said the IMF and World Bank were currently planning to hold their fall meetings in person, but the size was still be determined.
An IMF spokesman said discussions about logistics for the meetings, scheduled for mid-October, were still ongoing and no decisions had been made.
The institutions’ semi-annual meetings usually bring some 10,000 government officials, business people, civil society representatives and journalists to a tightly packed, two-block area of downtown Washington that houses their headquarters.
One option might be for only the most senior officials to travel to Washington for in-person meetings, but the decision will depend on conditions around the globe.
The IMF and the World Bank first advised their staff to work from home on March 13 last year after an IMF employee was diagnosed with COVID-19, affecting some 2,000 IMF headquarters staff and about 16,000 Washington-based World Bank and International Finance Corp employees and outside consultants.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
