Just days after former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan brushed aside rumours that he would be running for the top job at the Bank of England, his name has been thrown into the mix for candidates to head the even more prestigious International Monetary Fund (IMF). In an interview to the BBC, Rajan confirmed that he hadn’t applied for the position to head up the Bank of England because of political challenges posed by Brexit. He stated that such an appointment has become much more political in recent times and that it’s best that a country has someone who understands the political situation within that country and knows how to navigate it.
Moving on to the IMF story.
The IMF role fell vacant after its current MD Christine Lagarde’s nomination to the position of President of the European Central Bank (ECB). She announced her resignation last week and it takes effect from September 12th of this year.
As things stand, there is a growing demand for the next IMF chief to be from outside Europe and America, and according to reports emerging from the UK, Britain’s foreign office was urged to back an Indian for the job.
Mr. Rajan’s credentials make him a good fit for the post. He’s been a former governor in the RBI, he is a current faculty member of the prestigious Chicago Booth School of Business, and he has also worked as a former chief economist at the IMF for three years between 2003 and 2006.
Besides Mr. Rajan, other contenders are the outgoing governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney, former Chancellor George Osborne and a former Dutch Finance Minister.
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