Dr. Hamid Rashid – Head and Director, GlobalEconomic Monitoring at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDEA) –is the lead author of the UN flagship report, theWorld Economic Situation and Prospects, jointlypublished by UNDESA, UNCTAD, the UN RegionalCommissions and UN-WTO. Previously, he served asthe Senior Adviser for Macroeconomic Policy inUNDESA, advising finance, central banks andplanning authorities in developing countries on fiscaland monetary policy issues. He is in-charge ofmacroeconomic modeling and forecasting work at the UN. Prior to joining UN/DESA in 2010, Dr. Rashidserved as a Senior Adviser in UNDP’s Bureau for Development Policy and also as the Director General for Multilateral Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bangladesh.

Dr. Rashid earned his Ph.D. in economics and finance from Columbia University in New York under the supervision of Nobel Laureate Prof. Joseph Stiglitz. I Dr. Rashid obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Texas. Dr. Rashid’s research interest includes macroeconomic policies, mineral and mining economies, renewable energy sources and international finance and debt sustainability, economic growth and sustainable development. In a recent paper, Averting Catastrophic Debt Crises in Developing Countries: Extraordinary Challenges Call for Extraordinary Measures, Dr. Rashid and Prof. Stiglitz warn against the looming risks of a debt crisis in developing countries.