Philip Lane sole candidate for top ECB role

Philip Lane looks set to secure the job of replacing Peter Praet as the European Central Bank’s chief economist, becoming the first Irish member of the bank’s top-ranking executive board in the process.

Mr Lane, a Harvard-trained economist who is head of Ireland’s central bank, was the only candidate nominated by European governments to succeed Mr Praet, who steps down at the end of May, eurogroup president Mário Centeno said in a statement on Wednesday.

Mr Lane has long been considered the favourite for the role, which offers an eight-year term at the Frankfurt-based central bank.

Ireland is the only founding member of the euro to never have had an official on the six-member executive board, which helps shape monetary policy for the single currency area.

ECB president Mario Draghi is a known admirer of the Irishman, who would represent continuity with the policies pursued by the Italian once Mr Draghi departs in October. Mr Lane is seen as a strong economist who would back the stimulus measures that Mr Draghi has introduced during his eight-year spell at the helm of the ECB.

“Lane, the best economist in the ECB, promises to be a dominating figure in the post-Draghi governing council — perhaps even more so than the next ECB president,” said Melvyn Krauss, a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.

The eurogroup will formally agree on a candidate in early February, before the European Council of national leaders makes it official in late March after consulting with the European Parliament and the ECB.