President Nancy Birdsall was quoted in a Bloomberg article on the European debt crisis.
From the Article
International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde will seek support from Latin America’s largest economies this week to help contain Europe’s mounting debt crisis.
The visit that kicked off in Peru today is her first to Latin America since taking office in July and marks a role reversal for a region that harbors deep-seated resentment over decades of IMF-imposed austerity measures, said Roberto Abdenur, a former Brazilian ambassador to the U.S.
“Previously local authorities trembled when even the most junior IMF official visited,” Abdenur said in a telephone interview. “Today, the chief is coming to seek aid. It’s an historic about-turn.”
Struggling with repeated crises until just over a decade ago, Latin America today helps drive global growth with expansion forecast at 4.5 percent this year, compared with 1.6 percent for developed nations, according to the IMF. Lagarde wants to tap the new-found wealth of Brazil and Mexico to beef up the fund’s resources to contain the debt crisis, while placating their demands for a larger say at the institution.
“There are cycles, Latin American in the ‘80s, Asia in the ’90s and in Europe at the moment,” Lagarde said at a news conference in Lima today when asked whether Latin American can help Europe. “There are multiple ways of helping each other.”
She will travel to Mexico City tomorrow and lands in Brasilia Dec. 1. Breaking With Tradition
Many in Latin America wanted to break with the tradition of choosing a European national to head the IMF, with several countries supporting Lagarde’s main rival for the post, Mexico’s central bank chief Agustin Carstens.
The trip by the 55-year-old former French finance minister is part of a broader effort that included visits to Russia, China and Japan to secure bilateral loans to the IMF as a way to help Europe, said Nancy Birdsall, president of the Washington- based Center for Global Development, an aid research group.
“It’s a very good thing she’s doing this because you have to have the leadership on the management side, kind of corralling and persuading,” Birdsall said.