FX.co ★ ECB staff rank Christine Lagarde as bad central banker

Politico reported the widespread discontent among the ECB staff over the governance of President Christine Lagarde. The periodical refers to a survey by the ECB trade union. Common complaints from ECB officials are about her bossy manners, injustice, and poor routine organisation.

According to the latest survey, 50.6% of the respondents define her overall performance in the first half of her eight-year term as negative. Precisely, 20.1% of the staff rank Lagarde’s work as “very poor” and another 30.5% - as just “poor”. Besides, 24.2% of the pollees assess her governance as “mediocre”. Curiously, 12.3% of the staff consider her performance as “all right”. The striking minority approve of her leadership: 8% of the respondents define her performance as “very good” and 2.6% rank her as an “excellent” boss.

Comments in the survey indicate that ECB employees are not pleased about Lagarde’s over-involvement in politics and abusing her mandate to forge ahead with her personal agenda. A similar survey was arranged during the term of previous ECB President Mario Draghi. The poll revealed the opposite picture. By the end of Draghi’s mandate, only 20% of ECB employees assessed his performance as “poor” and 54% as “very good” and “outstanding”.

The latest survey was conducted from December 12 to 22 and included responses from 1,159 of the ECB staff.