President Nominates Kranjec as Central Bank Governor
President Janez Drnovsek on Friday officially proposed to parliament to appoint economist Marko Kranjec governor of the central bank. According to Drnovsek, Kranjec, a former vice-governor of Banka Slovenije, is a top expert and an authority on finance and banking.
The proposal comes after Kranjec won endorsement of all but one faction in parliament following their consultations with Drnovsek last week. The opposition National Party (SNS) said on Friday the party would take its position on the nominee next week.
Kranjec has long-term experience and the personality required for the successful governance of Banka Slovenije and its representation at the European Central Bank, Drnovsek says in the proposal to parliament as quoted by his office.
Drnovsek adds that the search for a candidate for the post at the helm of the central bank has been made difficult after two of his previous nominees failed to get support in parliament despite their excellent references.
The support for Kranjec came only after Drnovsek decided to yield to the pressure of the deputy groups and start consulting them about the nomination, which he had previously refused on the ground that it had proved to be unproductive in the past.
The central bank has been without a governor since April, when Mitja Gaspari's term ran out. Gaspari was Drnovsek's first pick for the post, but he was voted down in parliament.
Andrej Rant, a member of the Governing Board, suffered the same fate. Drnovsek's next picks were Velimir Bole, Mojmir Mrak and Dusan Mramor, but they all rejected the offer.
Drnovsek also said that he would not be explaining his actions regarding the nomination procedure in the chamber as requested by three coalition parties.
"They have already received a written answer, so I do not find it necessary sending a new one," said Drnovsek during a visit to Maribor today, adding that it was crucial for parliament to elect a new governor as soon as possible.
Janez Sustersic, the head of the Institute for Macroeconomic Analysis and Development (IMAD), the government think tank, said later that Kranjec was an excellent candidate. His economic beliefs are more liberal than those that might have dominated in the central bank so far, he added.
Kranjec was born in 1940 and had a stint as a macroeconomist at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris between 1976 and 1978. He worked at the World Bank in Washington between 1894 and 1986.
He was the finance minister in the first post-communist Slovenian government (1990-1991), before becoming the vice-governor of the central bank, a post he held until 1997.
He then went on to become Slovenia's ambassador to the EU. Since 2002 Kranjec teaches public finance at the Ljubljana Faculty of Administration. He is also a member of the Strategic Council for Economic Development, a government economic policy think-tank.
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