In IMF choice, a preview of the future?

Reuters’ Lesley Wroughton is reporting that ministers from South Africa and Singpore are the leading candidates for an important advisory post at the International Monetary Fund: The finance ministers of Singapore and South Africa have emerged as the only contenders to chair the International Monetary Fund’s main advisory committee, IMF board sources said on Tuesday. ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

Reuters' Lesley Wroughton is reporting that ministers from South Africa and Singpore are the leading candidates for an important advisory post at the International Monetary Fund:

Reuters’ Lesley Wroughton is reporting that ministers from South Africa and Singpore are the leading candidates for an important advisory post at the International Monetary Fund:

The finance ministers of Singapore and South Africa have emerged as the only contenders to chair the International Monetary Fund’s main advisory committee, IMF board sources said on Tuesday.

Singapore Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, a former central banker, is the favorite over South African Pravin Gordhan to head the IMF’s International Monetary and Financial Committee, board sources told Reuters.

The sources said an announcement was expected as soon as Friday if the fund’s managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, can narrow the selection to one. Failing that, the outcome will be determined in a secret vote by the IMF board members.

It would be a first time for either an African or Asian country to hold the post.

On its own, the fact that the only candidates are from Africa and Asia is significant. But the selection may have added weight because it could preview the choice the IMF will face shortly if and when Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigns as managing director to run for the French presidency. The IMF managing director slot has always gone to a Western European (often from France), but there could be significant pressure this time to select a candidate from the developing world.

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

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