WASHINGTON—Finance ministers sought to bolster confidence in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as they began discussing a successor to managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was jailed on charges including attempted rape.
Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said he is “absolutely confident” the IMF will “carry on with its business” under acting managing director John Lipsky. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said the 187-member lender to governments is “solid.” Kaoru Yosano, Japan’s economy minister, said the flap won’t compromise the fund’s mission.
Germany and Belgium said they prefer another European as head of the agency, responding to a push by developing countries to throw open its leadership. There are “good reasons” for Europe to keep the post amid the euro area’s debt crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters in Berlin. A European has always run the lender, which has helped bail out Portugal, Greece and Ireland, while an American heads the World Bank.
The IMF’s executive board, meeting in Washington, agreed to seek contact with Strauss-Kahn about his intentions, according to an official briefed on the deliberations. Strauss-Kahn, a 62-year-old former French finance minister accused of sexually assaulting a hotel housekeeper, was sent to New York’s Riker’s Island prison on Monday after being denied bail.
The choice of the next IMF leader “should be absolutely merit-based,” said former Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge. “I would argue that, all other things being equal, it would be very nice to have someone who has at least deep roots in, if not necessarily a current representative of, one of the major emerging-market countries.”
The process to select Strauss-Kahn’s replacement should be “fair, transparent” and aimed at finding the best person for the job, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Jiang Yu said at a regular briefing in Beijing on Tuesday.
Strauss-Kahn faces as long as 25 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charges.
IMF spokesman Caroline Atkinson told reporters that the fund is “fully operational” and working on matters for its member countries around the world. She said IMF business is continuing “uninterrupted.”
Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has told friends that he has global support for his candidacy for the top job at the IMF that could prevail over Prime Minister David Cameron’s opposition, the Financial Times reported, citing unidentified colleagues.
France’s Lagarde, speaking to reporters in Brussels after a meeting of European Union finance ministers, said the events surrounding Strauss-Kahn’s arrest were “painful,” and she declined to comment on speculation that she may be a candidate to succeed him.
“To see Dominique Strauss-Kahn in handcuffs on television this morning has deeply saddened me,” Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters in Brussels. “It was deeply sad and traumatic.”
