The Federal government is planning to extend the contract of German Federal Bank President Jens Weidmann for a further eight years. This is the Federal Finance Ministry in Berlin confirmed this Wednesday at the F. A. Z. – when the personnel in the Federal Cabinet decided, is not yet clear.
Philip Plickert
editor in the business, responsible for “The economist”.
F. A. Z.
Weidmann has served since 2011 as the Federal Bank chief, and his previous contract runs out at the end of April. The fifty-year-old also sits on the Council of the European Central Bank and is considered a monetary policy “hawk”, so as a proponent of a rather tough monetary policy. Again and again he has criticized the controversial ECB bond-buying programme, because it blurred his view, the border between monetary policy and fiscal policy, i.e. state funding. Temporarily, his relationship with ECB President Mario Draghi was regarded as tense.
Until this past summer, Weidmann was seen as the favourite to succeed the Italian Draghi, who will be retiring in October 2019, after eight years in office as President of the ECB. Weidmann’s chances suffered a setback, because German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) wanted to give him no support for the ECB Post. Instead, they rallied behind the candidacy of Manfred Weber (CSU), who is competing as the top candidate of the European people’s party in the EU election in may, and then President of the EU Commission wants to be. Weidmann’s chances could improve, Weber’s ambitions fail in the Brussels Post.
“All the world is waiting for the European election,” said a Central Bank Insider, the F. A. Z. After Weidmann’s chances have dropped, apply in financial circles, other European Central bankers as a promising candidate. In a survey of Economists in autumn, the retired Finnish Central Bank chief Erkki Liikanen was in the lead. At the age of 68, he is almost as old as Draghi. Also quite high chances to Draghi, successor to the Economists gave the French Central Bank President, François Villeroy de Galhau, although France, Trichet has ever been a President of the ECB- Jean-Claude (2003 to 2011) – noted.
