New York, September 28th 2009
– Global Finance magazine (website: www.gfmag.com) has named the heads of the central banks of six countriesplus the European Central Bank president–as the worlds best central bankers over the past year.
The Central Banker Report Card feature, published annually by Global Finance since 1994, grades central bank governors of 30 key countries (and the ECB) on an A to F scale for success in areas such as infation control, economic growth goals, currency stability and interest rate management. (A represents an excellent performance down through F for outright failure.)
Subjective criteria also apply. Says Global Finance Publisher Joseph Giarraputo, During one of the toughest years on record, the worlds central bankers were tested as never before. Every year, we try to assess the determination of central bankers to stand up to political interference and their efforts at forcing their governments to spend less, and to open their economies to foreign investment and fnancial services. This year however, special emphasis was given to each central bankers performance in navigating his or her country through the worst fnancial crisis since the 30s.
Only the Central Banker of Taiwan also scored an A last year. No Fs were awarded this year.
The full list of central banker report cards is as below.
2009 CENTRAL BANKER REPORT CARDS
|
THE AMERICAS |
Grade This Year |
Grade Last Year |
|
| Argentina | Martin Redrado | C | D |
| Brazil | Henrique de Campos Meirelles | B+ | B+ |
| Canada |
Mark Carney |
B |
C |
| Chile | Jos De Gregorio | B | B- |
| Mexico | Guillermo Ortiz | B | B |
| United States | Ben Bernanke | C | C- |
|
EUROPE |
|||
| Czech Republic | Zdenek Tuma | A |
B |
| European Union | Jean-Claude Trichet | A | C |
| Hungary | Andrs Simor | B | B |
| Norway | Svein Gjedrem | C- | B |
| Poland | Slawomir Skrzypek | B | D |
| Russia | Sergei M. Ignatiev | C- | D |
| Sweden | Stefan Ingves | C- | B |
| Switzerland | Jean-Pierre Roth |
B |
C |
| Turkey | Durmus Yilmaz | B | C |
| United Kingdom | Mervyn King | B | D |
|
ASIA |
|||
| Australia | Glenn Stevens | A | B |
| China | Zhou Xiaochuan | C | B- |
| India | Duvvuri Subbarao | B | N/A |
| Indonesia | Darmin Nasution (acting governor) | Too early to say | N/A |
| Japan | Masaaki Shirakawa | B- | N/A |
| Malaysia | Zeti Akhtar Aziz | A | B |
| New Zealand | Alan Bollard | C | D |
| Philippines | Amando M. Tetangco Jr. | B | B |
| Singapore | Heng Swee Keat | B | A |
| South Korea | Lee Seongtae | A | B |
| Taiwan | Fai-Nan Perng | A | A |
| Thailand | Tarisa Watanagase | C | C |
|
AFRICA & THE MIDDLE EAST |
|||
| Israel | Stanley Fischer | A | B |
| Saudi Arabia | Muhammad Al-Jasser | C | N/A |
| South Africa | Tito Mboweni | B | A |
