Official: IMF head needs Europe knowledge

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said Friday that nationality shouldn’t be a decisive factor in appointing the new chief of the International Monetary Fund, but argued that a sound understanding of Europe was needed. 

Lagarde, who has put herself forward as a candidate for the post, told BBC radio that the “country of origin should not be a criteria,” in deciding on a successor to Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Though she has strong backing in Europe, which has traditionally named the IMF chief, developing nations argue someone from another region should be given the job this time. The so-called BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — issued a joint statement earlier this week expressing support for “abandoning the obsolete unwritten practice of convention that requires that the head of the IMF be necessarily from Europe.”

India, Russia, and China have yet to decide who to support for the post, while South Africa has insisted the next IMF leader should be from an emerging economy.

“I honestly think that the nationality, the origin, is something that doesn’t really matter at the end of the day. What matters is the skills, the expertise, the experience, the willingness, the enthusiasm, the leadership, the background. All of that counts,” Lagarde told the BBC. But Lagarde also suggested it would be an advantage for the next chief to have an understanding of Europe’s debt-wracked economies and “the political circumstances and background” of European leaders.

The IMF is closely involved in a half dozen emergency lending programs across Europe. A senior official with U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration said Friday at the G-8 meeting in France the issue over who will leader the IMF didn’t come up in official group sessions. However, he said Sarkozy had raised the topic with Obama during their bilateral meeting Friday morning. Obama did not offer his support for Lagarde, or any other candidate.

The official said the president had simply reiterated the U.S. position that it wants an open selection process. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Wednesday that both Lagarde and her closest rival, Mexican central bank President Agustin Carstens were credible candidates. German Chancellor Angela Merkel also confirmed there would not be a unified G-8 position on who should get the job. “There will be no signal by G-8 concerning Lagarde,” she said.