Israel’s Stanley Fischer launches bid for IMF job
BANK of Israel governor Stanley Fischer said at the weekend he would run for the top job at the International Monetary Fund, presenting a potential serious challenge to front-runner Christine Lagarde.
Fischer, also competing with Mexican central bank chief Agustin Carstens, had said the IMF post was one of the best jobs in the international system.
“There arose an extraordinary and unplanned opportunity – perhaps one that will never happen again — to compete for the head of the IMF, which after much deliberation I decided I wish to follow through on,” Fischer said.
Israeli finance minister Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s representative at the IMF, said he would support and aid Fischer’s candidacy.
The job has been vacated by Frenchman Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who resigned after his arrest on May 14 on charges of attempting to rape a New York hotel maid.
Fischer, 67, would be a serious contender to Lagarde. But the IMF would have to change its rules that no one should be appointed to the post over the age of 65 and that no one should hold the post beyond the age of 70.