Critics had cited the stalemate as further evidence of the Italian leader’s ebbing clout as the country struggled to avoid becoming the next victim of the European debt crisis.
Ignazio Visco, currently the No. 3 official at the bank, was nominated to succeed Mario Draghi as bank governor, just days before Mr. Draghi takes over as president of the European Central Bank.
The prime minister’s office said the nomination was made in a letter sent to the bank’s board, which will meet Monday to provide a nonbinding opinion.
The appointment is subject to ratification by President Giorgio Napolitano before it can take effect.
The decision came after weeks of stalemate over Mr. Draghi’s successor. Mr. Berlusconi has struggled to assert authority over his increasingly fractious majority in Parliament as a widening debt crisis racks markets in Europe and threatens Italy.
Although Mr. Visco had not been considered to be among the leading candidates for the job, initial reaction to his appointment was positive.
Pier Luigi Bersani, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, said Mr. Visco had the requisite “authoritativeness and autonomy” required to guide the central bank, the Ansa news agency reported.
Mr. Draghi is set to start at the European bank on Nov. 1, taking over from Jean-Claude Trichet.
The selection of Mr. Visco, deputy director general of the Bank of Italy since 2007, came as a surprise after weeks of fervent — and turbulent — petitioning that ended in a three-way deadlock between Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, currently on the six-member executive board of the European bank; Fabrizio Saccomanni, the Bank of Italy’s deputy governor; and Vittorio Grilli, director general of the Treasury.
The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, had lobbied strongly in favor of Mr. Bini Smaghi, whose appointment would have made room for a French member on the European Central Bank board. Mr. Saccomanni was favored by the Bank of Italy, while Mr. Grilli was backed by Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti, who has clashed recently with Mr. Berlusconi.
As the deadline for nominating a candidate drew closer, criticism over the government’s inability to fill the post went hand in hand with growing doubts over the government’s inability to confront the challenges posed by the debt crisis.
Critics say that austerity measures passed this summer — meant to balance the budget by 2013 — are insufficient, and while the government pledged last month to quickly present wide-ranging measures to stimulate growth, it has yet to present anything concrete.
In a front-page editorial on Thursday in the Milan daily Corriere della Sera, titled “A Masterpiece of a Mess,” the editor in chief, Ferruccio de Bortoli, said the delay in appointing the governor was a “glaring demonstration of a lack of leadership and even of national dignity.”
Mr. Visco, 61, rose to his current position from within the bank’s ranks.
A native of Naples, Mr. Visco studied economics at the University of Rome and at the University of Pennsylvania, and joined the Bank of Italy in 1972. Two years later he began working in the bank’s economic research department, becoming its head in 1990.
From 1997 to 2002, he was chief economist at the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and served as the Bank of Italy’s adviser for Group of 7 and Group of 20 meetings.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/business/global/berlusconi-makes-surprise-pick-for-bank-of-italy.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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