Business

摘要

Christine Lagarde, France's finance minister, launched her official bid to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn as managing director of the imf. Ms Lagarde is the front-runner for the position. But there was growing disquiet in the developing world over the convention that only Europeans should be considered for the fund's top job, with the imf representatives of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa issuing a joint statement on the matter. Ms Lagarde acknowledged their concerns, but said that being European should be neither a "handicap, nor an asset" when assessing her qualifications.