Economics professor to head Bundesbank
The German government is nominating an economics professor as central bank president to succeed Ernst Welteke, who stepped down for taking a free hotel stay from a commercial bank.
Axel Weber, an international economics professor at the University of Cologne and a member of Germany’s expert economic committee, would be the government’s nominee, said finance ministry spokesman Joerg Mueller.
Weber’s nomination comes a surprise because recent media speculation had been on deputy economics minister Alfred Tacke, acting Bundesbank president Juergen Stark and deputy finance minister Caio Koch-Weser.
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s government is expected to formerly nominate Weber after its cabinet meeting today, but the nominee must be approved by the Bundesbank’s executive council.
Welteke resigned on Friday after weeks of criticism for accepting a hotel stay paid by for Dresdner Bank. The government had pushed for him to quit since a magazine reported he accepted a four-day, €7,500 stay for him and his family at Berlin’s ritzy Hotel Adlon over the New Year in 2002.
The Bundesbank was once Europe’s most powerful monetary authority as custodian of the solid German mark – a role it turned over to the European Central Bank with the introduction of the 12-country euro currency in 1999. Now it holds currency reserves, maintains the country’s supply of euro banknotes, and helps distribute central bank credits to commercial banks.
