This builds on the headlines from yesterday:
- ECB president Lagarde reportedly poised to leave the central bank before her term expires
- ECB says Lagarde remains committed to her role as president
The latest report here cites four sources in saying that Lagarde told colleagues in a private message that she remains focused on her job as ECB president for now. And that if she were about to step down, they will be the first to be informed about that decision.
The recipients of the message took that to mean that she was not about to resign earlier than her term dictates. That after rampant speculation yesterday that she might do so before April next year, right before the French presidential elections.
The report adds that Lagarde’s message was to reassure them that she was still concentrating on her role at the ECB and that they will hear from her directly, not the press, on her intentions to step down as president of the central bank.
That said, some recipients said that this likely just means Lagarde will not depart the ECB in the immediate term but she also did not close the door to such a possibility.
Well, the report here fits with what we saw in the previous episode in the summer last year. That was when Lagarde was heavily linked with taking up a role at the WEF and perhaps leaving her ECB post earlier than anticipated as well. So, this is very much a repeat of that in which she also goes out of her way to reassure members at the central bank that she is still committed to the job.
In any case, it seems like she did not outright refute the report and is just mainly stating that she won’t be distracted from her current duties – at least for now. That says a lot as she could’ve just outright state that she will not be departing from the ECB earlier than her term dictates it to be. Instead, she’s sidestepping that with a blanket statement of commitment. I think we all can extrapolate from that.
This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.