A top British newspaper has claimed that the British government had begun hunting for the next governor of Bank of England and former Reserve Bank of India governor, Raghuram Rajan, was being tipped to be a top contender for the coveted job.
The Financial Times said that ‘attracting Raghuram Rajan, the highly respected Chicago-based economist and former Reserve Bank of India governor, would be a coup.’
The paper listed the names of six people, who it thought was going to replace the current BoE governor, Mark Carney, a Canadian citizen. Carney was the first non-British national to hold the top post in BoE. His term expires in June 2019 and the British Chancellor of Exchequer, Phillip Hammond, is reportedly keen to hire another foreign national as Britain prepares to deal with the Brexit fallout on its economy.
Britain, whose economy was wrecked by the 2008 economic downturn, had barely managed to see some recovery on economic front until the country decided to part ways with the European Union.
The British treasury, according to FT report, was expected to publish an advert for the job in July, a year ahead of the end of Carney’s term, but Hammond reportedly said that he had already begun looking for candidates in forums such as the International Monetary Fund spring meetings in Washington.
“The formal process has not yet started but I, and many other people I am sure, may have cast their eye around various rooms to see if any likely looking candidates hove into view,” Hammond was quoted as saying.
Rajan was forced to quit as the RBI governor after the Centre’s Narendra Modi government rejected his wish for the second term. He was replaced by Urijit Patel, who has come for sharp criticism for not being able to safeguard the RBI’s autonomy and allowed the central government to go ahead with its demonetisation decision.
The demonetisation announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 8 November 2016, has had quite an adverse effect on the Indian economy. Only last week, consumers had complained of cash shortages across the country as ATMs went dry due to paucity of cash.
Rajan, a widely respected economist, was shortlisted for 2017 Nobel Prize for Economics brought out by Clarivate Analytics, which will be announced on Monday.