Carney ‘unlikely’ to succeed Lagarde as IMF boss
The governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney, is unlikely to succeed Christine Lagarde as the boss of the IMF, European officials have said as the EU was considering four other people for the job.
Lagarde resigned as IMF managing director this week after EU leaders picked her to become the new governor of the ECB at the start of July. The top IMF job historically has been filled by a European, and officials on the sidelines of a G7 finance ministers and central banker governors meeting said that Carney, who holds Canadian, British and Irish passports, was not considered European enough.
“He has the wrong passport, though otherwise everyone would love him,” one official said, echoing the views of three others. A senior French official said earlier this month that president Emmanuel Macron wanted a “continental European” for the job, effectively ruling out Carney.
EU countries are discussing the candidacies of Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch former head of eurozone finance ministers; Nadia Calvino, the Spanish economy minister; Mario Centeno, the Portuguese chairman of eurozone finance ministers; and Olli Rehn, the Finnish central bank governor.
French finance minister Bruno Le Maire, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the G7, is in charge of finding consensus around one of the names by the end of July, according to G7 officials.
