SOUTH AFRICA’S Trevor Manuel ruled himself out of the race for the International Monetary Fund’s top job yesterday, making French finance minister Christine Lagarde an even firmer favourite – although the threat of a judicial inquiry remains.
As the deadline to submit nominees expired last night, the French finance minister had the backing of European Union countries, and Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin also voiced his support.
Augustín Carstens, Mexico’s central bank governor, said he was backed by 12 Latin American nations, while he had not garnered endorsements from Argentina and Brazil.
Ms Lagarde has benefited from the failure of emerging markets to coalesce around a candidate from their own ranks after vowing to end a six-decade European lock on the position. She has tried to turn attention away from her nationality by focusing on her gender and her role in European efforts to head off a Greek sovereign-debt default.
Ms Lagarde will have to wait another month to know whether she will be placed under judicial investigation for her role in the awarding of a €285 million payment to controversial businessman Bernard Tapie.
A French court yesterday decided to postpone until July 8th a decision on whether to launch a full judicial inquiry into Ms Lagarde’s actions in resorting to an arbitration panel in a long-running legal dispute with Mr Tapie.
The delay means the fund’s executive board will have to consider Ms Lagarde’s candidacy for the post of managing director before the outcome of the inquiry is clear. – (Bloomberg/Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011)
