/ 14 June 2011

Lagarde, Carstens on IMF shortlist

Lagarde

France’s Christine Lagarde and Mexico’s Agustin Carstens were shortlisted on Monday to lead the International Monetary Fund, while Israel’s central bank chief, a last-minute entry, was left off as a candidate.

The determined backing of crisis-mired Europe made Lagarde the odds-on favourite to become IMF managing director after her fellow countryman Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned on May 18 to fight sexual assault charges in New York.

Carstens, the Mexican central bank chief who has tried to break the 65-year European lock on the position, acknowledged as much earlier on Monday to a Washington audience.

“The chances of Christine Lagarde getting elected are quite high. I’m sure that she will make a good managing director,” he said at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

The two were the only ones named late on Monday when the IMF released the short list after nominations closed on Friday.

The IMF did not explain why Israel’s Stanley Fischer, who only declared himself at the last minute, was not on the list.

But by the Fund’s bylaws, his age at 67 put him two years over the official age for a new managing director, and obtaining a change or variance to the rules would have been a difficult process, while the executive board has given itself two weeks to reach a consensus on a new head.

Two other possibles, South African Planning Minister Trevor Manuel and Kazakhstan’s central bank head, dropped out on Friday, both saying that Lagarde was certain to be chosen in an arrangement that has always favoured the Europeans.

Decision time
On Monday the board said it would meet with the two with the objective of making a choice by June 30.

Lagarde, France’s finance minister, and Carstens, who spent three years as IMF second deputy managing director from 2003-2006, have crisscrossed the globe seeking endorsements from the major economies whose weight is strongest in the IMF process.

Both have strong credentials, but only Lagarde (55) has picked up major support, foremost from the powerful European bloc, where she has been deeply involved in dealing with fiscal crises.

She gained momentum in recent days with official support from Egypt, Indonesia, and a number of African countries.

Carstens has only garnered the expressed support of a dozen Latin American countries, which, notably, do not including Brazil or Argentina.

But the United States and Japan have yet to name their favourite; nor have the increasingly crucial Brics emerging economies, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Carstens (53) lobbied US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in Washington Monday morning for support.

Geithner remained uncommitted but thinks that Carstens “has a strong mix of financial talent and political skills, making him an exceptionally capable candidate to head the IMF”, said a Treasury spokesperson.

Carstens, an orthodox, University of Chicago-trained economist, suggested that Lagarde could be too deeply involved in Europe’s fiscal problems to be the unbiased, unsentimental leader the IMF requires.

With Greece’s debt situation and a €110-billion IMF-European Union rescue on the rocks, critics say the IMF needs someone who is not so wedded to the eurozone.

“There could be a conflict of interest,” Carstens told the Peterson Institute audience.

“We’d have a situation where the borrowers dominate a creditor institution. I think that’s an issue we should consider,” he said.

Lagarde has stressed her independence and ability to serve the Fund’s entire membership in trying to woo supporters.

The Brics haven’t tipped their hands, but “in private they have already conceded that they are mostly likely to back Lagarde”, said Brookings Institution analyst Domenico Lombardi.

They see her “as an important backstop to the European crisis”, he added.

Lagarde’s candidacy nevertheless faced a potential problem.

On Friday a French court postponed a decision on whether to investigate her role in an alleged abuse-of-power scandal until July 8 — after the target date for deciding the next IMF head.

“Lagarde’s legal entanglements could throw her candidacy off track, opening up the race,” Eswar Shanker Prasad, a Cornell University professor and former IMF researcher, said. — AFP