Christine Lagarde will be the first ECB president without any direct experience of setting central bank policy. Photograph: Liu Jie/Xinhua/Barcroft Media

Rebooting eurozone growth should be Lagarde's top priority

Aminy Andawi
Politics & Economic
International
Jul 05, 2019
3056
Christine Lagarde’ is still waiting for her position as the president of ECB, replacing Mario Draghi, to be confirmed. Although she would be the first president of ECB without any experience of setting central bank policy and be the first non-economist to hold the position, Lagarde could be helped by her political experience which she gained through IMF and as France’s finance minister.

Lagarde will face tough tasks focusing on overseeing 19 Eurozone economies, starting with rebooting growth in the Eurozone. As the financial market across Europe have rallied and had a healthy growth in the first quarter of the year, the US-China trade war has dragged down nations’ trade volumes. Lagarde will be able to use her power at her disposal to reboot the Eurozone economic growth, as she was the former France's finance ministry

The Eurozone is currently suffering from an unfinished monetary and political union. In this situation, Lagarde could help EU governments to save the Eurozone by using more tax which the central bank has been arguing. Lagarde have to keep an eye on Italy as the country’s economic growth is weak yet have a high government debt.

As the first non-economist to hold the position, Lagarde may need to rely on ECB staff. Furthermore, Philip Lane, the former Irish central bank governor and the chief economist will help Lagarde.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/03/business/dealbook/ecb-christine-lagarde.html

Economic , International