Dr. Murtaza Syed has assumed responsibilities of Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan with effect from January 27, 2020. He was appointed as Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan by the Federal Government for a period of three years, in pursuance of Section 10(4) of the State Bank of Pakistan Act 1956 (amended).

Dr. Syed has more than 20 years of experience in macroeconomic research and policy making. He worked with the IMF for 16 years before joining the State Bank of Pakistan.

Most recently, he served as Advisor in the IMF's Institute for Capacity Development, overseeing the planning and implementation of IMF training and technical assistance programs around the world.

Earlier, he was Deputy Division Chief in the IMF's Strategy, Policy, and Review Department and was involved in IMF programs and surveillance of various emerging markets and advanced economies, including Colombia, Cyprus, the Euro Area, Japan, and Korea. He also served as the IMF's Deputy Resident Representative in China between 2010 and 2014 and as IMF mission chief to Macao.

He started his career at the IMF in the Fiscal Affairs Department before moving to the Asia and Pacific Department, where he worked on a variety of emerging markets and developing countries.

Dr. Syed started his career in the late 1990s as a Senior Policy Analyst at the Islamabad-based Human Development Center under the then Finance Minister of Pakistan, Dr Mahbubul Haq. Later, he worked for the Institute for Fiscal Studies in London, the UK's premier public policy think tank, where he conducted research projects on business investment and employment behavior, as well as evaluating two large Latin American antipoverty programs.