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First ECB meeting by Christine Lagarde: Ideologically flexible - and in a good mood

2019-12-12T17:22:57.490Z


For the first time since taking office, the new head of ECB Christine Lagarde must announce the decisions of the central bank. Your appearance comes unusually alive. And she spices it with a spike against her predecessor.



Right at the beginning of her first press conference as the new President of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde makes it clear that a new era is beginning with her.

After introductory remarks on the current decisions of the ECB Governing Council - in short: everything remains the same, the economic outlook for the Eurozone is not rosy, but somewhat better than last - the Frenchwoman puts aside her written statement and raises her voice: "Before When I answer your questions, let me clarify two things: I have my own stillness, which may be different, "says Lagarde, gesturing; not extravagant, but noticeably more than her often overly stoic predecessor Mario Draghi.

In addition, Lagarde has purposely failed to comment in its comments on its intention to review the ECB's monetary policy strategy. This "Strategic Review" should lay the path for her term and could fix the ECB's inflation target of currently around two percent.

At any rate, she had deliberately kept silent about this new strategy, says Lagarde, but now she would like to say something. "Shall I?", She grinned in the round, reaps a few laughs, and then decides "OK!" After all, she knows that what may sound like hairiness to laymen is in fact fundamental to the future of the ECB.

In the end, it does not really reveal much: the strategy consultancies are scheduled to start in January and close by the end of the year. But the message of this performance is clear: it will be different at the head of the ECB in the future than under Draghi. More alive.

Draghi's heavy heritage

The Italian had piloted the euro zone through the crisis, set new standards with low and negative interest rates and gigantic purchases of government and corporate bonds and in Germany attracted the anger of savers and some commentators, but ultimately held together the currency area and, indirectly, lower Interest, provided for growth and employment.

He had often more or less single-handedly determined the monetary policy and effectively prevented substantive debates in the Council. In September he had suffered the increased anger of many colleagues by reanimating the already completed bond purchase program against fierce resistance. The rift went right through the Council and Europe.

It is now Lagarde's turn to cement this rift, to set a new course in the Strategy Review, and to reconcile the national central bank governors assembled in the Council. In any case, Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann is no longer alone with his criticism of the course of loose monetary policy.

Communication as the most important means of control

Lagarde's agenda is clear. She sees herself as a great interpares, not as a splitter. It is ideologically flexible - which should facilitate the search for compensation. With the usual division into monetary hawks, which tend to vote for high interest rates, and pigeons, which propagate a more relaxed monetary policy, Lagarde can do little.

"Once and for all: I am neither a dove nor a hawk, but an owl, for they are considered wise," she says. "And I'm not overly vain, but I want my team to work well together."

Communication is her most important means of control. This has been made clear by the former head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) since French President Emmanuel Macron has positioned her as ECB president. It wants to take away all that concerns the monetary policy of the ECB. "That's why," Lagarde said in reference to the strategy debate, "we are talking not just to the usual suspects, the experts, EU parliamentarians, but also to civil society representatives and many more, and we are going to see things like technical progress, climate change and Include inequality in our thinking. "

For now, that's hardly more than phrases. On the other hand, Lagarde has only been in office since November 1 and has yet to find his way. Anyone who listens to the ECB hears that the communicative zeal of the new boss is already causing employees to sweat around the clock; Lagarde had already given interviews before taking office. At the same time, she can be flirting with being new to the job and perhaps not having an answer to everything - unlike her predecessor Draghi, who liked to talk in a monotone voice about monetary aggregates. "If I do not know something, then I'll tell you that," said Lagarde.

ARMANDO BABANI / EPA-EFE / REX

Lagarde with ECB Vice Luis de Guindos

But on this Thursday she does not have to pull that joker. She looks well-prepared, has an answer to everything, speaks as if she's been around for a while. Her deputy Luis de Guindos, who sits next to her on the podium of the ECB press office in Frankfurt, does not have to bail her out. The Spaniard looks as grumpy as he once did with Draghi.

A small, concealed between the lines tip against their predecessor, the Frenchwoman finally but still. "Maybe that's why I will not be able to answer everything on the strategy, because we still have to talk about it in the Council," says Lagarde. "And I want to define my tenure so that we can discuss everything together."

The fact that Draghi did just that - discussing everything with each other - is clear to everyone in the room right now. But Draghi is history, and from now on everything comes to the command of Christine Lagarde, the first woman at the head of the European Central Bank.

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2019-12-12

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