Brazil Government Said to Privately Support Lagarde as Next IMF Director

Brazil will privately support French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde’s candidacy to run the International Monetary Fund, a Brazilian government official familiar with the negotiations said.

The Brazilian government sees no point in backing Mexican central bank Governor Agustin Carstens’s bid for the job given that Lagarde will have enough votes to win, said the official, who requested anonymity because he isn’t authorized to speak publicly about the issue.

In exchange for its private support for the European candidate, Brazil will push for Lagarde to run the IMF only until the end of next year, when former head Dominique Strauss- Kahn’s term would have expired, the official said. Brazil doesn’t plan to declare that support openly, he said

Brazil also wants to ensure the that an overhaul giving emerging markets countries more votes at the IMF is pushed forward and that there is an agreement to end Europe’s monopoly on the top job at the fund, the official said.

The Washington-based IMF is seeking to find a replacement by June 30 for Strauss-Kahn, who resigned last week following his arrest on sexual assault charges in New York.

Strauss-Kahn’s five-year term had 17 months remaining. In past successions, some managing directors were appointed to fresh five-year tenures.

To contact the reporter on this story: Arnaldo Galvao in Brasilia at agalvao1@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Francisco Marcelino at mdeoliveira@bloomberg.net

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May 23 (Bloomberg) -- Charles Wyplosz, director of the International Center for Money and Banking Studies, talks about the search for a new International Monetary Fund chief. Support in Europe mounted for French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde to head the IMF, while nations from Australia to Brazil are urging a selection determined by "merit" rather than nationality. Wyplosz speaks with Deirdre Bolton on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack." (Source: Bloomberg)