ECB personnel: successor to Philip Lane – France reports interest in the position of ECB chief economist

Paris. France is raising its finger to fill the position of ECB chief economist, which will become vacant in the middle of next year.

Central bank chief Emmanuel Moulin said on Tuesday it would be “absolutely legitimate” for a Frenchman to take over the post. “It is a position that we have never held in our history,” he added in an interview with TV channel BFM Business. “We have very good candidates – in fact, very good candidates – for this role,” said the ECB Governing Council member.

Possible French candidates to succeed the Irishman Philip Lane are the deputy head of the French central bank, Agnes Benassy-Quere, the former OECD chief economist Laurence Boone and the economist Helene Rey. Her appointment would also help maintain gender balance on the board, where ECB chief Christine Lagarde and director Isabel Schnabel, who left early in January, are currently the only women.

Lagarde will step down early at the beginning of February, and ECB chief economist Lane will only serve until the end of May 2027. According to Eurogroup boss Kyriakos Pierrakakis, the filling of the three positions should ideally be clarified by the heads of state and government in a personnel package by the end of the year.

The Dutchman Klaas Knot and the Spaniard Pablo Hernandez de Cos have already thrown their hats into the ring for the presidency of the ECB. Moulin called both candidates “competent and pragmatic.” They stand for a continuation of the line pursued by ECB boss Lagarde.