Skip to main content

Indonesia backs Lagarde as IMF candidates seek support


G20 member Indonesia threw its backing behind France's Christine Lagarde for the head of the IMF on Sunday, marking her first public endorsement from a major emerging market and padding her lead in a three-way race.
Indonesia has previously been non-committal on the race for the International Monetary Fund's top job, as Southeast Asian and other emerging market nations discussed the possibility of putting forward a candidate themselves for a post traditionally held by a European.
But with the deadline for the job ending on Friday, only Bank of Israel Governor and former IMF deputy chief Stanley Fischer has emerged as a candidate to challenge frontrunner Lagarde and Mexico's central bank chief Agustin Carstens.
"Personally I support France," said Indonesian Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo on the sidelines of a World Economic Forum event in Jakarta.
"She is a very professional person. She is smart in interacting between institutions, and has high integrity and skills," he added, having met Lagarde during her visit to Indonesia in February.
Lagarde, France's finance minister, is backed by the European Union and a handful of smaller countries from Georgia to Mauritius. Paris is hopeful that Washington and Beijing will also stand behind her.
Fischer said on Saturday he would compete for the IMF job, vacated when Frenchman Dominique Strauss-Kahn quit in May over charges he tried to rape a New York hotel maid. Strauss-Kahn has denied the charges.


MEMORIES OF ASIAN CRISIS
Fischer is popular in the United States, but may not go down so well in Asia, where he remains associated with some of the harsh IMF-backed free-market policies to fight the region's financial crisis in the late 1990s.
Indonesia, Southeast Asia's biggest economy, needed a $43 billion bailout from the IMF then to help it cope, but has more than doubled its foreign reserves since 2008 up to a record $118 billion to give itself a cushion against future crises.
Lagarde was in Saudi Arabia on Saturday as part of a world tour to drum up support among emerging market economies, while Carsten visited New Delhi on Friday but appeared to fail to win their commitment to his candidacy.
India and other emerging economies China, Brazil, South Africa and Russia have called for an end to Europe's grip on the top job at the international lender. However none of those countries put up a candidate or explicitly backed Carstens.
"There is not the capacity to build consensus among the emerging market nations behind one candidate, irrespective of who that person is, and besides that the Europeans feel very strongly," said Ian Bremmer, president of political risk consultancy Eurasia Group.
"I think it's virtually impossible to unseat Lagarde at this point."

BY Reuters..
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ukrainians injured as police dismantle Kiev 'tent city'

At least 10 demonstrators have been injured in clashes with Ukrainian police and another 100 detained in the capital Kiev after authorities began dismantling a makeshift "tent city" protesting against corruption. The tent city was set up in October by supporters of Mikheil Saakashvili, a former president of Georgia who has become an opposition politician in Ukraine. Saakashvili, a critic of corruption in Ukraine, was deported to Poland in February. He said he was "kidnapped" by Ukrainian authorities and removed from the country against his will. Andriy Kryshchneko, police chief of police, said at the camp on Saturday that "two court decisions" allowed authorities to search and dismantle the camp. Police said that explosives and other weapons were found at the scene
Post a Comment
Read more

ASSIGNING OF PREFERENTIAL NUMBERS FOR LG POLLS COMPLETED

The Election Secretariat announced that assigning preferential numbers for candidates of the Local Government election to be held for 67 bodies has been completed. Preparations are currently underway to hold the polls under the 2010 electoral register, Additional Elections Commissioner W.P. Sumanasiri said. The electoral register of the year 2010 is scheduled to be certified on June 31.
Post a Comment
Read more

DEFENCE MINISTRY TO INVESTIGATE CHANNEL 4 FOOTAGE

The channel-four footage was an attempt by certain international powers to undermine the country’s economic strength following their failed war agenda, External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris stated. Speaking at a press conference at the Foreign Ministry today (June 21) he said that the Defence Ministry will investigate the controversial footage. Meanwhile, Minister Peiris added that with President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s visit to Russia and the strengthening of ties between the two nations, the government will implement a special programme to encourage more tourists from Russia.
Post a Comment
Read more