‘Draghi successor to face challenges’

HELSINKI: European Central Bank presidential hopeful Olli Rehn spelled out the challenges facing Mario Draghi’s successor in an interview published on Saturday, but declined to comment on the process, Reuters reported.

The ECB rate setter and Bank of Finland chief has been tipped as a potential successor to Draghi when the ECB president leaves on Oct. 31, but the process is steeped in secrecy.

“I trust that EU decision makers will find a person for the job who will be able to manage it even through tight spots which will also come,” Rehn was quoted as saying by Finland’s Helsingin Sanomat newspaper.

Replacing Draghi, who famously pledged in 2012 to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro, has left markets anxiously awaiting news of his successor.

“The governor has to be both qualified in monetary and financial policy as well as capable of team play,” Rehn said, while declining to comment on the deliberations.

Rehn’s previous posts include Finnish minister for economic affairs as well as a decade working as a European commissioner overseeing the bloc’s enlargement as well as economic policy.

In March, a Reuters poll of economists found that while French ECB board member Benoit Coeure was considered best-suited for the top job, the most likely compromise candidate was Rehn’s compatriot Erkki Liikanen, a former Finnish central bank chief.