Skip to main content

Centeno brings Portuguese charm to Eurogroup top job

By Axel Bugge

LISBON (Reuters) - Mario Centeno, appointed on Monday to lead the Eurogroup, used his easy-going style as Portugal's finance minister to turn his crisis-hit country into a model euro zone pupil, causing him to be described as a "Ronaldo" among euro zone finance ministers.

The soft-spoken Centeno, 50, who will take over as chairman of the euro zone group of finance ministers from mid-January, spent two years nursing his country back to financial health.

He reversed some austerity measures from the 2011-14 bailout - while all the time insisting on meeting Europe's budget goals.

When he took over the finance portfolio under Socialist prime minister Antonio Costa in 2015, few had confidence he could achieve what was required - especially with two far left parties in government pushing for more spending.

Now, Portugal is set to grow this year at its fastest pace in at least a decade, the budget deficit will fall to its lowest level in modern times and the country has recovered an investment grade credit rating after years in junk territory.

The achievement earned the Harvard-trained Centeno praise from former German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who in May called him the "Ronaldo" of euro zone finance ministers in a reference to the Portuguese soccer star.

Centeno, from the southern Algarve region, is known as a workhaholic who seldom loses his good humour.

He is also known as someone who seeks to build consensus, which has helped him handle the far left in Portugal. He has often said he will seek to bring that quality to the Eurogroup job.

Co-workers say he likes to make decisions based on econometric models and economic studies. He was deputy head of the economic research department at the Bank of Portugal between 2004 and 2013 and subsequently worked as a consultant to the central bank board before joining Costa's government.

He has a PhD from Harvard and is an expert on labour markets.

Centeno is a keen soccer enthusiast and supports Lisbon club Benfica. He wore a Portugal soccer scarf to the first Eurogroup meeting after his country won the European championship in 2016.

While studying at Lisbon's School of Economics and Management (ISEG), he also dabbled in rugby while studying applied mathematics.

He married one of his co-students from ISEG and has three children.

(Additional reporting by Sergio Goncalves; Editing by Richard Balmforth)



via Sify.com http://ift.tt/2ALVM9I
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

RB Leipzig's Jean-Kevin Augustin joins Leeds United on loan

Leeds [UK], Jan 27 (ANI): German football club RB Leipzig's Jean-Kevin Augustin on Monday joined Leeds United on a loan. The striker joins the Whites on an initial loan deal until the end of the season from Bundesliga outfit Red Bull Leipzig, the club said in a statement. Augustin joined the RB Leipzig in July, 2017 for a fee of 13 million Euros. The 22-year-old featured in both the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League during his time with the German club, who finished sixth and third in his two seasons, where he scored 20 goals in 67 matches. French national helped his country win the European Under-19 Championship in 2016, where he scored the most number of goals and was adjudged as player of the tournament. Augustin is Leeds' third signing of the January transfer window following the joining of Elia Caprile and Ian Poveda. (ANI) via Sify.com https://ift.tt/2OiruB9
Post a Comment
Read more

Chelsea are a young team, need to improve a lot: Kovacic

London: Chelsea's Mateo Kovacic said they are a young team and need to improve a lot. Chelsea secured a 2-1 win over Hull City on Saturday in FA Cup. Michy Batshuayi scored the opening goal of the match in the sixth minute and Chelsea's second goal was scored in the 64th minute. "It was a tough game, as we knew that it would be, but we need to score in the first half two more goals. That's our problem in this moment but obviously we're happy to go through," the club's official website quoted Kovacic as saying. "It was because we didn't score on time - we had some chances and we didn't use them. In training, we are working on it but we are still a young team, a new team, and we need to improve a lot. We need to take our chances, which in this moment we are not doing great, but we have time to improve and I am sure we will do," he added. Chelsea are currently placed at the fourth position in the Premier League table with 40 points...
Post a Comment
Read more

Chelsea are a young team, need to improve a lot: Kovacic

London [UK], Jan 27 (ANI): Chelsea's Mateo Kovacic said they are a young team and need to improve a lot. Chelsea secured a 2-1 win over Hull City on Saturday in FA Cup. Michy Batshuayi scored the opening goal of the match in the sixth minute and Chelsea's second goal was scored in the 64th minute. "It was a tough game, as we knew that it would be, but we need to score in the first half two more goals. That's our problem in this moment but obviously we're happy to go through," the club's official website quoted Kovacic as saying. "It was because we didn't score on time - we had some chances and we didn't use them. In training, we are working on it but we are still a young team, a new team, and we need to improve a lot. We need to take our chances, which in this moment we are not doing great, but we have time to improve and I am sure we will do," he added. Chelsea are currently placed at the fourth position in the Premier League table ...
Post a Comment
Read more