EU finance ministers were due to hold a conference call on Thursday to discuss a possible candidate to head the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the French Economy Ministry said.
French Finance Minister, Bruno Le-Maire, has been trying to find a European consensus on Christine Lagarde’s replacement after the French IMF chief was tipped to head the European Central Bank.
Paris says five candidates are under discussion but there is still no consensus candidate and Thursday’s call should set up a process to find one.
The five are Spanish Economy Minister, Nadia Calvino; Portuguese Finance Minister, Mario Centeno; former Dutch Finance Minister, Jeroen Dijsselbloem.
Others are World Bank Chief Executive Officer, Kristalina Georgieva from Bulgaria, and former EU Commissioner, Olli Rehn from Finland.
The Washington-based IMF is traditionally led by a European while its sister institution, the World Bank, is led by a U.S. national, although emerging countries have recently challenged this unwritten rule.
