LaGarde vows more UNCITRAL for emerging markets at the IMF

Director of the IMF Christine Lagarde holds a press conference at the headquarters, International Monetary Fund in Washington, July 6, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Kevin LamarqueBy Lesley Wroughton

WASHINGTON. Wednesday, July 6, 2011 12: 45 am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Christine Lagarde, the IMF's new Chief, pledged Wednesday to go ahead with reforms to rapid growth in emerging markets than the global lender right-of-way.

At a press conference on his second day as the Monetary Fund International, Director General, Lagarde has recognized an array of the immediate problems of funds, including the European debt crisis, but she also said that it stressed the need for the IMF to change over time.

Institutions as the IMF must better reflect the changing balances in the global economy, it said, adding the idea of creating a first rank to the IMF to give better visibility in the emerging markets was not "a bad idea."

"The world will continue to change," she said. "We have these tectonic plates move at this time, and which must be reflected in the composition of the governance and employment fund.

LaGarde has won first place in the IMF after its predecessor, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, resigned in May to answer to charges of sexual assault against a hotel maid in New York. Strauss-Kahn denied the charges and the case appears to be ending on questions about the credibility of his accuser.

LaGarde has refused to comment on the situation of Strauss-Kahn despite repeated questions.

Questioning was sometimes difficult for this popular event, in part because of the drama surrounding its accession to the IMF. Some emerging markets wanted the job to go to one of their members, rather than carrying on business as a tradition of having a European head of the lender.

LaGarde, a Minister of finance French former who has trained as a lawyer for business, but not an economist, asked directly whether she was qualified to organize work, which, among other things, is whether the payment of the needy tens of billions of dollars to the country.

"I'm not going to boast my qualifications or lack of skills." "I believe that the truth of the pudding is in the food, as you say," Lagarde said. "We will see how it goes."

THE REFORM AGENDA

She said IMF member nations needed to complete the reforms agreed to in 2010 to give developing countries more power within the institution.

"But which should also reflect in our policies of employment, training policies, of how we build teams, how we organise recruitment so that the people are not clones of each other, Lagarde said."

LaGarde acknowledged that among the issues the more urgent that it must face is a crisis of European debt demanded of redemptions of Ireland, Portugal and the Greece. She confirmed that the IMF Board will meet Friday to consider a disbursement of funds for the Greece.

It said another sensitive issue was how to deal with the outbreak of capital flows to emerging markets that create the risk of bubbles and disrupt the foreign exchange markets.

While noting that the global recovery was unbalanced, she tried to sound a note of comfort that it was firmly in place.

"When you look at our growth forecasts for 2011, 2012, we are clearly on the rebound and things are improving and getting better compared with the situation in 2009 at the crisis, Lagarde has."

(Reporting by Mark Felsenthal, Pedro da Costa and Doug Palmer, written by Glenn Somerville, additional editing by Andrea Ricci)

LaGarde focuses on equity for all in the IMF (AFP)

WASHINGTON (AFP) - new IMF Chief Christine Lagarde has promised equal treatment for all countries and urged Greek politicians to unite behind an austerity plan as she took the head of the crisis lender world Wednesday.

The former French Finance Minister also promised the Monetary Fund International would continue to weigh the social issues such as unemployment in its difficult programs to financially ruined economies and would be more open to dissenting opinions of policy.

LaGarde, who replaces compatriot Dominique Strauss-Kahn, expressed concerns regarding the "unequal" recovery of the financial crisis of 2008-09, on sovereign debt unsustainable in the euro area and elsewhere, and the impact of inflation "imported" into the world's poorest countries.

"Impartiality, playground are the words that you will hear say me again", Lagarde said at a press conference on his second day as Director General.

"We must never lose sight of what we are about... to help restore stability where there is instability,"she says."."

The first woman to lead the Fund, Lagarde arrived Tuesday in the concerns that it would be too focused on Europe as the crises in the Portugal and Greece continue to turn.

She dismissed questions that it could carry an ideological or geopolitical view fixed problems will have to deal with.

"No one should be affected with a particular label," she said. "I think that you have to judge people by what they do."

But Lagarde said the eurozone crisis is an urgent matter and that the IMF Board will meet Friday on releasing a new slice of rescue euro ($160 billion) Union European-IMF 110 billion to Athens.

It urges the political parties in the Greece to get behind the difficult austerity program dictated to Athens in relief.

"I hope that all political parties can be properly inspired by the examples of political parties in Ireland, by political parties to the Portugal," she said in his press conference of the beginnings of the Fund.

"It comes at a time that political party rivalries should be cancelled when it is in the interest of the country," she said.

With the IMF under the criticism that it is always, 65, led by a European - through a pact with Washington - Lagarde allowed the possibility that its fund could create a third Deputy, Managing Director for a person to one of the emerging economic powers.

These months there is speculation such a position and that this could go to someone in China now world's second largest economy.

"We have these tectonic plates that move at the moment, and which must be reflected in the composition of governance and employment to the Fund," she said.

Counsel for 55 years replaces Strauss-Kahn, who resigned may 18 against allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman of House Hotel in New York.

Arrest of Strauss-Kahn cast a cloud over the IMF since, but since then prosecutors admitted deep doubts about the credibility of the accuser and New York newspapers reported this week that the case could soon be abandoned.

LaGarde has refused to comment on specifically in the case, but he said the media should "respect" the principle of the presumption of innocence.

"I think that the presumption of innocence is something that is more popular in the world," she said.

She said that she would be keep up injection of Strauss-Kahn of social issues such as job creation in the plans of the Fund to help countries to restructure their finances.

"Clearly the employment is a key issue...".to determine a stable social chemistry of a society, "she said."

But Lagarde to rebuild the image of the Fund after Strauss-Kahn, who was respected for its policies but which matters of personal conduct raised on ethical standards.

The married Strauss-Kahn was sentenced by the Council for a liaison with an economist of the IMF, and the media have characterized since this type of behavior as common to the Fund.

In May the IMF announced new standards of ethics for internal relations and sexual harassment, and he expanded the ethics for staff training.

"I will be the ethics training program," said Lagarde. "I look forward to it."

LaGarde WINS IMF post, press the Greece on the crisis

Finance Minister Christine Lagarde the France reacts after the announcement that it has been selected as the new head of IMF, in the studios of TV TF1 in Boulogne-Billancourt, near Paris, June 28, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/TF1By Lesley Wroughton

WASHINGTON. Tue, June 28, 2011 6 pm EDT

WASHINGTON (AFP) - the Minister of French finance Christine Lagarde Tuesday captured the top job of the IMF, keeping the international lender between the hands of a European at a time of growing concern to a default value of Greek debt as possible.

LaGarde, who starts his term of five years as Director-General on 5 July, will find itself immediately plunged into efforts by the IMF and the European Union at the head of a Greek default which could trigger an international crisis.

Minutes after his appointment, pressed Lagarde of Greece to move quickly push through unpopular austerity measures that the IMF and EU say are a prerequisite for some help.

"If I have a message this evening on the Greece, it is to appeal to the Greek political opposition in support of the party which is currently in power, in a spirit of national unity," she told TF1 television.

LaGarde, 55, the first woman at the head of the IMF, the successor to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who resigned from the IMF in May to defend himself against charges of sexual assault against a New York hotel maid. He denies the charges.

His skills as a difficult bargaining with a reputation for bargains to seal under pressure will be weight that it moves to defend the economic interests of the France to the supervision of an international institution which must be considered as a neutral player in the world.

Succession race was one of most hotly contested in the history of the emerging MFIS of nations market expressed dissatisfaction with the 64-year tradition of having a European head of the IMF and an American lead sister institution, the World Bank.

In a Financial Times blog, Mohamed El-Erian, Chief Executive Officer of Pimco, the largest investor of binding of the world, said that Lagarde would need to show the efforts of the IMF to help distressed European countries were not politically motivated.

He said that she would need to prepare for the possibility that the IMF could face losses of rescue plan big loans made in recent years, including the 30 billion euros for the Greece.

LaGarde must also demonstrate a commitment to meritocracy by eliminating some appointments based on nationality, El-Erian added, quoting the position of n ° 2 of the Fund which traditionally goes to an American.

Washington is considering already appoint the White House Advisor David Lipton to succeed John Lipsky IMF second in command at the end of August, according to sources close to discussions of.

FINDING CONSENSUS

Selection of Lagarde to the Central Bank Governor Agustin Carstens of the Mexico was assured after the United States clearly support and emerging markets China, Brazil, the India and the Russia did likewise.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy called the new appointment of Lagarde "a victory for the France".

Carstens, said that he hoped that Lagarde would continue "significant progress in strengthening the governance of the institution, to ensure legitimacy, cohesion and ultimately, its effectiveness."

Developing countries, resentment in a process which favored a European from the outset, said they would hold Lagarde to his promise to give them more voting power in the Fund.

Emerging markets have long called for greater say in the IMF to take account of their weight in the global economy. They have threatened to leave the fold of the IMF unless that imbalances of power electoral fund are corrected.

Strauss-Kahn pushed through changes in the voice that benefited mainly large emerging economies such as China, the India and the Brazil, but not as much as they wanted.

"RIGGED SYSTEM."

Finance Minister Guido Mantega to the Brazil said Brazil sustained Lagarde because it promised to continue "raise the profile of emerging markets" in the IMF. "We hope that the commitment is met," said Mantega.

Arvind Subramanian, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute in Washington, said emerging economies had missed a golden opportunity to force change at the head of the IMF by failing to rally around Carstens, or putting in place their own candidate of consensus.

"It is a fake system must change, but... the only reason that the result is that (developing countries) wanted to because the emerging-market countries do not seize the opportunity,"Subramanian said."".

The global development group Oxfam said appointment of Lagarde is "ridiculous" and had damaged the credibility of the IMF.

"There were noises concerning the opening, but the decision was made before that the candidates were interviewed, said Sarah Wynn-Williams, head of Oxfam in relations with the IMF and the World Bank."

The United States, worried by the possibility of contagion from the Greek crisis, warned that the appointment of the next IMF Chief should not be delayed.

The Board of IMF progressed despite persistent concerns about a legal matter unresolved in France research on the role of Lagarde in a payment of arbitration 2008 to a French businessman.

Lagarde said she was "completely indifferent" by the case. A top French court postponed a decision on the matter until July 8.

The IMF may decide not to offer a contract to Lagarde to what the Court makes a final decision, said a Council source.

(Reporting by Glenn Somerville on Washington, Luciana Lopez in Brasilia and Alexandria Sage and Catherine Bremer additional Paris)

(Editing by Paul Simao, Jan Paschal and Andrew Hay)