FILE PHOTO: Benoit Coeure, board member of the European Central Bank (ECB), is photographed during an interview with Reuters at ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, May 17, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo
July 7, 2019
AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France (Reuters) – ECB policymaker Benoit Coeure defended on Sunday the nomination of Christine Lagarde to lead the European Central Bank, saying that she was “uniquely qualified”.
Lagarde has faced criticism that she is not a trained economist since European leaders tapped her last week to replace Mario Draghi at the head of the ECB.
“Christine Lagarde is uniquely qualified to lead the ECB at a time when challenges are both internal and external to the euro zone,” Coeure told journalists on the sidelines of an economic conference in southern France.
“She knows how the global economy works. She knows how Europe works. And she knows how to talk to financial markets,” he added.
(Reporting by Leigh Thomas, Edited by Inti Landauro)
