Lagarde’s IMF roadshow in India on Tuesday: source
Lagarde’s IMF roadshow in India on Tuesday: source
New Delhi: French finance minister Christine Lagarde is due to travel to India next Tuesday as part of her tour to solicit emerging nations’ support for her bid to lead the IMF, a government source said.
“We are expecting her (Tuesday) June 7," in connection with her campaign to lead the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the source, who asked not to be named, told AFP.
Lagarde was in Brazil earlier this week -- one of several emerging economic powers seeking an end to Europe’s stranglehold on the powerful post -- on the first stop of an international tour.
Last month, India and Brazil were among the so-called Brics group of emerging economic nations that also includes Russia, China and South Africa, which slammed Europe’s grip on the IMF.
They have said they are working on a common candidate but have so far failed to unify behind anyone.
So far, Lagarde has two declared rivals: Mexico’s central bank chief Agustin Carstens, who also envisages a trip to India to press his case, and Kazakh central bank boss Grigory Marchenko.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said earlier this week that management of global institutions needed to be “brought up to date with contemporary realities," referring to the economic clout of emerging nations.
But he added that “the best available person regardless of his or her nationality should be selected" to lead the IMF.
Lagarde, a 55-year-old former lawyer, has been France’s finance minister since 2007 and is favored to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn as the top IMF official.
She has also said she plans to visit China and some African countries to drum up backing for her candidacy.
Traditionally, a European has headed the IMF, while the United States supplies the president of the World Bank.
India’s top candidate, senior government economic adviser Montek Singh Ahluwalia, was ruled out of the race because he was too old at the age of 68.
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