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Mumbai:
Italian economy minister and a former European Central Bank board member Tommaso
Padoa-Schioppa was elected to chair the International Monetary Fund''s steering
committee, keeping European influence at the global financial institution intact.
Padoa-Schioppa
won a closed ballot among the 24-member International Monetary and Financial Committee
(IMFC) against Canadian finance minister Jim Flaherty, diplomatic and IMF sources
said. He succeeds
Britain''s Gordon Brown who left the post after 10 years in July, after becoming
prime minister of UK. Earlier
reports had indicated a move among industrialised western nations to cede some
of their dominance in the IMF to emerging economies by placing Indian finance
minister P Chidambaram to the top policy post. In
a move indicative of growing division between large emerging nations and poorer
ones that are still aid-dependent within the Group of 11 developing countries,
African countries led by Nigeria switched stance, sources said. This
has closed the immediate chance for emerging economies to shake up governance
of the institution and overhaul its voting power and with it a likely chance of
tensions among large developing countries wanting greater say in the running of
the IMF. The
vote comes amidst IMF''s search for a new role in a changing world where rising
powers like China, India, Brazil and Russia want to shake up institutions like
the IMF to better reflect their growing economic weight. India''s
bid for the IMFC chair had also the backing of many large developing countries,
including China, Brazil and Russia. But there have been deepening divisions among
the rapidly growing emerging countries and less developed ones, especially in
Africa, which still rely on rich nations for aid. The
post has always been Europe''s preserve except in the 1980s when Canada briefly
filled the chair.
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