Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, has announced that she will be running for a second term in office.
Lagarde made this disclosure in an interview in France on Friday.
According to her; “I had the honor to receive endorsements as soon as nominations opened
If member countries of the institution as a whole wish I continue, (as managing director), I am a candidate”.
The former French finance minister, assumed duty as managing director of the IMF in July 2011.
Lagarde’s term as IMF chief came at the height of the eurozone’s sovereign-debt crisis. She led the institution as it managed three bailouts, for Ireland, Portugal and, most controversially, Greece.
In December 2015, investigating judges placed her under formal investigation in the long-running affair of Bernard Tapie, who received a substantial state payout for his dispute with a state bank during her time as finance minister.
According to Aleksei Mozhin, Dean of the Executive Board of the IMF, “The successful candidate for the position of managing director will have a distinguished record in economic policymaking at senior levels,” “He or she will have an outstanding professional background, will have demonstrated the managerial and diplomatic skills needed to lead a global institution,” he said.
Two weeks ago, Ms. Lagarde, 60, was in Nigeria, with the purpose of providing an opportunity to strengthen the Fund’s partnership with the largest economy in sub-Saharan Africa. In the course of her visit, Lagarde held talks with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa in Abuja, where she backed the president’s fight against corruption terming it “very important” and also added that Buhari’s reform push could have a positive impact in Africa.
BBC originally reported this news
