Georgieva tapped as EU candidate to lead IMF after bitter vote
Kristalina Georgieva, the World Bank‘s chief executive, was selected by European governments as their candidate to head the International Monetary Fund following an acrimonious process in which the result was initially contested by some member states.
If Georgieva wins the backing of the IMF board in the autumn, she will succeed Christine Lagarde and confront a world economy at its weakest since the aftermath of the financial crisis and threatened by escalating trade tensions.
Friday’s voting came after European Union governments struggled to rally behind a single candidate during weeks of talks.
The conservative Georgieva, 65, succeeds interim director David Lipton, who like Lagarde, has reaped criticism for a record, $57 billion bailout of Argentina - 61% of the Fund's total loan portfolio.
Of the $45 billion disbursed since June 2018, 77% has been used to finance capital flight - against the IMF's own rules.
At: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-02/eu-fails-to-name-imf-candidate-as-process-thrown-into-confusion
Georgieva and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
If confirmed, Georgieva inherits one of the most complicated situations in the IMF's 73-year history:
A $57 billion bailout of Argentina's right-wing Macri administration - granted at Trump's insistence to promote Macri's unlikely re-election this year - is considered unpayable by most analysts, without converting the 4-year standby credit facility into an extended fund facility (with much longer repayment terms).
The Argentina bailout represents 61% of the IMF's loan portfolio, creating a major solvency risk for Fund should Argentina default - as 30 other countries have in the past, albeit for smaller loans.
