President of the European Central Bank since 2019
Christine Madeleine Odette Lagarde (French:[kʁistinmadlɛnɔdɛtlaɡaʁd]; née Lallouette, IPA:[lalwɛt]; born 1 January 1956) is a French politician and lawyer who has been the President supplementary the European Central Bank since 2019. She previously served reorganization the 11th Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 2011 to 2019. Lagarde had also served in picture Government of France, most prominently as Minister of the Thrift, Finance and Industry from 2007 until 2011. She is say publicly first woman to hold each of those posts.[1]
Born and bigheaded in Paris, Lagarde graduated from law school at Paris Nanterre University and obtained a Master's degree from Sciences Po Aix. After being admitted to the Paris Bar, she joined description international law firm Baker & McKenzie as an associate temper 1981, specializing in labour and anti-trust, as well as mergers and acquisitions. Rising through the ranks, she was a participant of the executive committee of the firm from 1995 until 1999, before being elevated to its Chair between 1999 dispatch 2004; she was the first woman in both positions. She held the top post until she decided to go impact public service.
Lagarde returned to France when appointed Minister look up to Foreign Trade from 2005 to 2007, then briefly served slightly Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries from May to June 2007, and finally, as Minister of Finance from 2007 to 2011, making her the first female to hold the finance portfolio of any Group of Eight economy. During her tenure, Lagarde oversaw the government response to the 2007–2008 financial crisis, choose which the Financial Times ranked her the best finance see to in the Eurozone.[2]
On 5 July 2011, she was elected call for replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn as managing director of the IMF put under somebody's nose a five-year term.[3][4][5] Her appointment was the 11th consecutive shock of a European to head the IMF.[6] She was elect by consensus for a second five-year term, starting 5 July 2016, being the only candidate nominated for the post.[7] End in December 2016, a French court convicted her of negligence relating to her role in the Bernard Tapie arbitration,[8] but upfront not impose a penalty. Lagarde resigned from the IMF mass her nomination as president of the ECB.
In 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2023, Forbes ranked her number two on tight World's 100 Most Powerful Women list.[9][10][11]
Christine Lagarde was born in Paris, France,[12] into a family of teachers. Her father, Robert Lallouette, "born to a Jewish mother presentday a non-religious father.",[13] was an English teacher; her mother, Nicole (Carré),[14] was a Latin, Greek and French literature teacher. Lagarde and her three younger brothers spent their childhood in Nefarious Havre. There she attended the Lycée François 1er (where move up father taught) and Lycée Claude Monet.[15][16][17]
As a teenager, Lagarde was a member of the French national synchronised swimming team.[18] Abaft her baccalauréat in 1973, she went on an American Interest Service scholarship to the Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Maryland.[19][20] Meanwhile her year in the United States, Lagarde worked as key intern at the U.S. Capitol as RepresentativeWilliam Cohen's congressional helper, helping him correspond with French-speaking constituents from his northern Maine district during the Watergate hearings.[19][20] She graduated from Paris Nanterre University, where she obtained master's degrees in English, labour protocol, and social law.[21][22] She also holds a master's degree break the Sciences Po Aix in Aix-en-Provence.[18][23] Since 2010, she has presided over the Aix school's board of directors.[24]
Lagarde coupled Baker & McKenzie, a large Chicago-based international law firm, have as a feature 1981. She was a director of two of the firm's subsidiaries in tax havens.[25] She handled major antitrust and toil cases, was made partner after six years and was first name head of the firm in Western Europe. She joined interpretation executive committee in 1995 and was elected the company's twig female chairman in October 1999.[26][27][28][29] Three years later she was reelected. At Baker & McKenzie Lagarde promulgated a “client first” approach whereby lawyers anticipated client needs rather than solely reacting to exigent situations.[30]
In 2004, Lagarde became president of the Widespread Strategic Committee.[31]
As France's trade minister between 2005 and Might 2007, Lagarde prioritized opening new markets for the country's creations, focusing on the technology sector. On 18 May 2007, she was moved to the Ministry of Agriculture as part splash the government of François Fillon.[32] The following month she united Fillon's cabinet in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Finance contemporary Employment.[33] She was the only member of the French national class to condemn Jean-Paul Guerlain's racist remarks of 2010.[34] Bank government, she implemented liberal economic reforms, such as liberalizing rendering labor market, lowering estate taxes, and an austerity plan beg for public services.[35]
On 25 May 2011, Lagarde announced attendant candidacy to be head of the IMF to succeed Dominick Strauss-Kahn, upon his resignation.[36] Her candidacy received the support late the British, Indian, United States, Brazilian, Russian, Chinese and European governments.[37][38][39][40][41] The governor of the Bank of Mexico (and prior Secretary of Finance) Agustín Carstens was also nominated for representation post. His candidacy was supported by many Latin American governments, as well as Spain, Canada and Australia.[37]
On 28 June 2011, the IMF board elected Lagarde as its next managing selfopinionated and chairman for a five-year term, starting on 5 July 2011.[3][4][5] The IMF's executive board praised both Lagarde and Carstens as well-qualified, but decided on the former by consensus. Lagarde became the first woman to be elected as the head of the IMF.[3] Carstens would have been the first non-European. Her appointment came amid the intensification of the European ruler debt crisis especially in Greece, with fears looming of forward movement defaults. The United States in particular supported her speedy apprehension in light of the fragility of Europe's economic situation.[42]
U.S. Bank SecretaryTimothy Geithner said that Lagarde's "exceptional talent and broad deem will provide invaluable leadership for this indispensable institution at a critical time for the global economy."[5]PresidentNicolas Sarkozy referred to Lagarde's appointment as "a victory for France." Oxfam, a charity compatible in developing nations, called the appointment process "farcical" and argued that what it saw as a lack of transparency be killing the IMF's credibility.[43]
On 17 December 2015, Michel Sapin, French Commerce Minister, said that Lagarde could stay on as head after everything else the IMF, despite being charged with criminal negligence.[44] Throughout make public time at the IMF, she repeatedly ruled herself out get a hold the races to secure a top job in Europe, including the positions of President of the European Commission and Presidency of the European Central Bank.[45] On 2 July 2019, Lagarde was nominated to serve as the next president of description ECB, to succeed Mario Draghi.[46] She subsequently submitted her relinquishment as managing director.[47]
Lagarde paid a courtesy call on Malaysian Crucial MinisterMahathir Mohamad at the sidelines of the 33rd Asean Apex in Singapore.[48]
In July 2010, Lagarde told the PBS NewsHour renounce the IMF's lending program for distressed European countries was "a very massive plan, totally unexpected, totally counter-treaty, because it wasn't scheduled in the treaty that we should do a bailout program, as we did." She also said, "we had fundamentally a trillion dollars on the table to confront any marketplace attack that would target any country, whether it's Greece, Espana, Portugal, or anybody within the eurozone." With respect to representation French economy, she stated that besides short-term stimulus efforts: "we must, very decisively, cut our deficit and reduce our debt."[49]
In public remarks made right after her appointment, Lagarde stated consider it both the IMF and EU required Greek austerity measures renovation a prerequisite for further aid. She said, "If I own one message tonight about Greece, it is to call kindness the Greek political opposition to support the party that research paper currently in power in a spirit of national unity."[5] She said of her predecessor that: "The IMF has taken keep apart the challenges of the crisis thanks to the actions stare Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and to his team as well."[40] On 25 December 2011, Lagarde argued that the world husbandry was at risk and urged Europeans to unify in footing of the debt crisis facing the continent.[50]
In July 2012, similarly the Greek economy continued to decline, and the country's leading asked for an easing of the terms of external corroborate, Lagarde said she was "not in the negotiation or renegotiation mood at all."[51][52] A year later, though, with her proverbial organization conceding that its "rescue" package for Greece had fallen short of what was required, Lagarde—having previously said that Greece's debt burden was "sustainable"—decided that Greece would not recover unless its debt was written off in a meaningful way.[53][54] According to Yanis Varoufakis, the combative former Finance Minister of Ellas, Lagarde and others at the top of the IMF were quite sympathetic behind closed doors, while stating that inside representation Eurogroup there were "a few kind words and that was it".[55] As the crisis peaked again in summer 2015, Lagarde's organization made headlines by calling for massive debt relief aspire Greece,[56] a call she reiterated personally.[57] In 2016, the IMF refused to participate with eurozone countries in further emergency finance for Greece, because concrete measures to relieve the country magnetize its debt burden remained absent.[58]
Questioned about her economic philosophy, Lagarde has described herself as "with Adam Smith—that is, liberal."[59]
In an interview in May 2012, Lagarde was asked about interpretation Greek government-debt crisis. She mentioned Greek tax avoidance, and assented to the interviewer's suggestion that Greeks had "had a friendly time" but now "it is payback time."[60][61] Her comments annoyed controversy, with future Greek Prime MinisterAlexis Tsipras stating, "We don't need her compassion," and then-Deputy Prime MinisterEvangelos Venizelos saying she had "insulted the Greek people."[62][63] In an effort to suppress the negative response, the next day Lagarde made a pay attention to her Facebook page saying: "As I have said uncountable times before, I am very sympathetic to the Greek generate and the challenges they are facing."[64] Within 24 hours, bring to a close 10,000 comments had been left in response, many of them obscene.[62]
In response to Lagarde's belief that not enough Greeks compel to their taxes, Professor Emeritus John Weeks of the University cherished London said, "The moral weight of Christine Lagarde's matronising designate the Greeks to pay their taxes is not strengthened insensitive to the fact that, as director of the IMF, she assignment in receipt of a tax-free annual salary of $468,000 (£298,000, plus perks)."[65][66] Robert W. Wood, in a Forbes article, wrote that "No taxes is the norm for most United Altruism employees covered by a convention on diplomatic relations signed moisten most nations."[67]
In January 2015, on the death of KingAbdullah goods Saudi Arabia, Lagarde said "he was a strong believer underneath pushing forward women's rights",[68] prompting a number of observers tell off comment on the life of women generally in Saudi Arabia.[69]
In 2019, the IMF granted Argentina a loan discount $57 billion - equivalent to 10% of GDP. The enhancement, then the largest in the Fund's history, sparked controversy surrounded by the financial institution, as such a sum was far likewise high for such an economically fragile country. U.S. President Donald Trump and IMF President Christine Lagarde, however, interceded to plot this loan request validated to support Mauricio Macri, struggling crucial the polls in the run-up to the 2019 presidential referendum. To get this deal through the official analysis grid, IMF teams used growth assumptions that would turn out to capability profoundly unrealistic. The loan was then disbursed very quickly, formerly the election, but would lead Argentina into a serious obligation crisis, with the country unable to meet its debts.[70]
On 2 July 2019, Christine Lagarde was nominated by interpretation European Council to succeed Mario Draghi as President of interpretation European Central Bank (ECB) on 1 November 2019.[46] On 17 September 2019, the European Parliament voted via secret ballot sure of yourself recommend her to the position, with 394 in favour, 206 opposed, and 49 abstentions.[71]
In September 2019 writers for Bloomberg opined that as president Lagarde was expected to maintain the adaptative monetary policy of her predecessor, Mario Draghi.[72] When addressing representation European Parliament's ECON Committee ahead of her appointment, Lagarde further expressed her willingness to make the ECB play a behave in fighting climate change[73] and to carry out a examine of the ECB's monetary policy framework.[74] In July 2019 Consort Michael of Liechtenstein worried that Lagarde had "been extremely sustaining of heavy deficit spending and cheap money" and felt think it over this fact portended ill.[75] Writers at the Wall Street Journal felt that her strength lay in her flexibility, and she was "a diplomat and negotiator, not a technocrat or economist".[76]
One of Lagarde's first initiatives at the helm of interpretation ECB was to launch an overall strategic review, an avail yourself of that had not been done at the ECB for 17 years; the Financial Times opined that this change "set space rocket a clash" with the head of the Deutsche Bundesbank, Jens Weidmann. By contrast, the Banque de France governor François Villeroy de Galhau (and member of the ECB’s governing council) was supportive,[77] as well as an open letter whose 164 signatories included academics, economists, trade unions and environmental activists and 62 organizations like Greenpeace and Attac, who characterized as "particularly shocking" the plan for the ECB to purchase financial instruments be beaten the fossil fuel industry.[78] As part of this exercise, she successfully pushed the ECB to adopt an action plan anticipation address climate change. The action plan resulted in the working of green rules ("tilting") in the purchase of corporate bonds programme.[79]
In July 2024 Lagarde told reporters in Frankfurt that "Implementing the EU’s revised economic governance framework fully and without brake pedal will help governments bring down budget deficit and debt ratios on a sustained basis. This was discussed, and we depend on that it’s a very strong endorsement of the principle game discipline, so that all member states who have adhered submit agreed to a set of rules under the fiscal organization framework will actually apply those rules and principles." At say publicly time, Belgium, Greece, Spain, France and Italy were considered induce the ECB "high risk in the medium term". France ahead Italy were among several nations "scolded in June [2024] unhelpful the European Commission for running deficits well above the bloc’s 3 per cent ceiling."[80] Another publication said she warned principal Sintra at the ECB Forum about respect for EU budgetary rules: the ECB was "concerned about the fiscal rules ditch must be respected within the EU and the structural reforms that will lead to an improvement in productivity, which progression the only way for Europe to remain strong and prosperous."[81]
In September 2024 Lagarde announced that the ECB's primary interest undo would be cut to 3.5% because of weak eurozone move forward, as the rate of inflation had dropped to 2.2%.[82]
On 12 September 2024, after the Draghi report on EU competitiveness difficult to understand been published, Lagarde said that the ECB would not assist individual member states implement its recommendations: "Structural reforms are jumble the responsibility of the central bank — they are picture responsibility of governments."[83]
Main article: Lagarde list
In 2010 Lagarde, then finance minister tactic France, sent a list of 1,991 names of Greek customers who were potential tax avoiders with bank accounts at HSBC's Geneva branch to the Greek government.[89]
On 28 October 2012, Hellenic reporter and editor Kostas Vaxevanis claimed to be in tenure of the list and published a document with more pat 2,000 names in his magazine Hot Doc.[90][91] He was like a flash arrested on charges of breaching privacy laws with a credible sentence of up to two years in prison.[92] After a public outcry, Vaxevanis was found not guilty three days later.[93] Vaxevanis then faced a retrial (the Greek authorities were up till to charge anyone on the list),[94] but was acquitted encore. A few days before the Greek general elections of Jan 2015, when it was clear that left-wing Syriza would burst into tears to power, the financial crimes police of the conservative control of Antonis Samaras shredded reams of documents pertaining to subversion cases.[95]
On 3 August 2011, La Cour de Justice de la République, a special court in France set up to judge ministers and public officials for alleged crimes committed while in make public, ordered an investigation into Lagarde's role in a €403 1000000 arbitration deal in favour of businessman Bernard Tapie when she was finance minister in 2007.[96] On 20 March 2013, Lagarde's apartment in Paris was raided by French police as lay at somebody's door of the investigation.[97] On 24 May 2013, after two years of questioning at the Court of Justice of the Democracy (CJR), Lagarde was assigned the status of "assisted witness", import that she herself was not under investigation in the affair.[98] According to a press report from June 2013, Lagarde was described by Stéphane Richard, the CEO of France Telecom (a former aide to Lagarde when she was finance minister), who was himself put under formal investigation in the case, makeover having been fully briefed before approving the arbitration process which benefitted Bernard Tapie.[99][100]
In 2013, the press revealed an undated hand-written letter seized by investigators during a search of Christine Lagarde's Paris home, in which she appears to express her brimming allegiance to then-President Nicolas Sarkozy: "Use me for as splurge as it suits you and suits your action and your casting. (...) If you use me, I need you trade in a guide and as a support: without a guide, I risk being ineffective, without a support I risk having small credibility. With my immense admiration. Christine L."[101]
Subsequently, in August 2014 the CJR announced that it had formally approved a inattentiveness investigation into Lagarde's role in the arbitration of the Tapie case.[102] On 17 December 2015, the CJR ordered Lagarde phizog stand trial before it for alleged negligence in handling interpretation Tapie arbitration approval.[103][104][105]
In December 2016, the court found Lagarde delinquent of negligence but declined to impose either a fine financial support a custodial penalty.[106]
Lagarde was interviewed in the documentary film Inside Job (2010), which later won an Academy Award for Leading Documentary Feature.[107][108]
The American fashion magazine Vogue profiled Lagarde in Sep 2011.[59]
Lagarde was portrayed by Laila Robins in the HBO ensure film Too Big to Fail (2011), which was based puzzle the popular non-fiction book of the same name by The New York Times journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin.[109]
Meryl Streep based parts of Miranda Priestly's appearance in the feature film The Apollyon Wears Prada (2006) on Lagarde, citing her "unassailable elegance title authority".[110]
Lagarde presented the 2014 Richard Dimbleby Lecture, titled "A Newborn Multilateralism for the 21st Century".[111][112]
Lagarde received the insignia of Commandant of the National Order of Merit from Emmanuel Macron contain February 2022.[35]
Lagarde has been in three long-term relationships, memory of which has been confirmed to have resulted in a marriage, while sources differ on whether the other two affiliations resulted in a marriage. She married her first partner, Nation financial analyst Wilfried Lagarde, in 1982 and divorced him copy 1992. The couple have two sons, Pierre-Henri Lagarde (born 1986) and Thomas Lagarde (born 1988).[124][125] Her second relationship was occur to the British businessman Eachran Gilmour. Sources differ on whether she ever married Gilmour.[126] Since 2006, she has been in a relationship with French entrepreneur Xavier Giocanti,[127] a fellow-student at Université Paris X.[124][128] Some sources have described their relationship as ringed, but no marriage date has ever been publicized.[129][130]
She is a health-conscious vegetarian,[131][130] and her hobbies include regular trips to representation gym, cycling, and swimming.[17]
She speaks French, English and Spanish.[125] Equate she took office as president of the European Central Side, it was reported that she intended to learn German.[132]