Christine Lagarde steps down as IMF's Managing Director

Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde has resigned and is awaiting confirmation to take over as the new President of European Central Bank (ECB).

Lagarde was the French Finance Minister ahead of her appointment to IMF in 2011. Lawmakers in the European Parliament confirmed her selection along with those of Ursula von der Leyen as European Commission President, Al Jazeera reported.

Lagarde will formally step down on September 12. She is widely expected to continue Mario Draghi's policy of loose monetary controls at the ECB. Draghi served as the President of ECB since 2011. His term is scheduled to end on October 31.

 

Analysts predict that markets are looking forward to seeing whether the ECB will continue its unconventional monetary policy and Lagarde has the capacity to lead the ECB in new monetary policy innovations if needed as Draghi did.

There are concerns that despite leading the IMF for the past eight years, Lagarde is a relative newcomer to the intricacies of ECB and will likely take time before marking her own role.

"There are concerns about her not being an economist, not having monetary policy experience," Professor Michele Chang of the College of Europe told Al Jazeera in a recent interview.

"People are going to be looking for her to have her own perspective on that and not only relying on the monetary policy experts around her, like Philip Lane (the Irish Chief Economist of ECB)," Chang added.

"Jobs like the ECB presidency will need more technical capacity than that of the IMF job, but she has shown herself to be an excellent leader of a multinational economic organisation," the professor said.

The IMF is a global money lending organisation consisting of 189 countries and working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world.

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