French Finance
Minister Christine Lagarde said Europe’s debt crisis and the aftermath
of the Arab Spring will be priorities for the International Monetary
Fund’s next chief as she kept up her campaign for the post.
“Europe will
be a clear focus for the next couple of years,” Lagarde told BBC Radio 4
on Friday.
“I also think that what is happening in northern Africa, in the
Middle East, and the major economic developments that will be needed to
accompany what is happening, will probably attract the IMF’s attention
and possibly financing.”
The IMF said
in a report prepared for the Group of Eight summit this week that
oil-importing nations in the Middle East and North Africa will require
more than $160 billion in external funding through 2013.
Lagarde, who is
vying to become France’s fifth IMF chief and maintain Europe’s hold on
the position, also told the Financial Times she would “remedy the
situation” if she found developing countries underrepresented at the
fund.
“I don’t
think it should be a European or an emerging economies candidate” for
the top job, Lagarde said. “It should be a good candidate. My sense is
that it should be an open, transparent and merit-based process.”
While
developing nations have called for an end to Europe’s 65-year hold on
the post, they have failed to unite behind one nominee. Mexican central
bank Governor Agustin Carstens is among her rivals for the job.
Bank of
Israel Governor Stanley Fischer is considering whether to declare
himself a candidate to run the International Monetary Fund, said a
person familiar with his thinking. While Fischer says he has unfinished
business at the central bank, he wants to keep his options open, said
the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Asked in a
Bloomberg Television interview on May 25 whether he would like the post,
Fischer said he plans to stay at the helm of the Bank of Israel. He
didn’t say whether he’ll present his candidacy for the role, which he
called “terrific.”
Russia
indicated it still may be possible for the so-called BRICs nations to
support a candidate from one of their countries.
“We don’t
exclude such a possibility,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told
reporters at the G8 summit in Deauville, France today.
Lagarde, 55,
emerged as the leading contender to replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn
after his resignation last week. The 187- member IMF aims to pick his
successor by end June. She is seeking meetings in China and other
emerging powers as part of an effort to broaden support for her
candidacy beyond Europe.
Lagarde argued that her experience of European structures and governments may help her in the job.
“It might
actually be a benefit, it’s not decisive, but it may be a benefit to
know all these people, to know the intricacies of the European
construction, to appreciate the political circumstances and background
of each of the leaders,” she said.
Julian
Jessop, an economist at Capital Economics Ltd. in London, suggested that
Lagarde’s European credentials will be particularly important because
of the region’s debt crisis.
“One of the
biggest problems facing the global economy over the next few years is
European, which is the future of the euro zone,” he said. “Being
European may not be a bad thing.”
G-8 leaders,
who are meeting today in Deauville, France, pledged their “strong
support” for the pro-democracy movements sweeping the Middle East and
North Africa. The IMF proposed granting loans as part of global efforts
to help countries in the region strengthen their economies after the
surge in pro- democracy movements there.
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