Bloomberg, Reuters
Paris


International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde said France needs to keep reforming its economy and that she would welcome a second law by Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron.
“I hope there will be a second Macron law,” Lagarde said on France 2 television. “Anything that cuts fat, that simplifies, goes in the right direction.”
The IMF is preparing to revise its global growth forecasts and will likely estimate France’s 2015 growth rate at more than 1%. Growth of about 2% is needed to generate a drop in unemployment, Lagarde said.
With low oil prices, a weaker euro and monetary stimulus, France should be able to show growth, she added.
“If the good ship France can’t open its sails widely in these conditions, it would be worrying,” Lagarde said.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said last week his government would propose legislation next year to simplify France’s labour laws, in what is likely to be the last big reform push before 2017 presidential elections.
Lagarde said she hasn’t decided whether to seek a second term in the role.
“It’s possible,” Lagarde said in the interview. “I haven’t yet made a decision. It’s something that is both personal and professional.”
Lagarde, whose current five-year term expires in May, was appointed in 2011 amid discussion whether an emerging-market candidate should be considered for job for the first time.
Since its creation in 1946, all 11 managing directors of the Washington-based fund have come from Europe.
As head of the institution, Lagarde has juggled issues ranging from giving financial support to Greece to whether to integrate China’s currency into the IMF’s special-drawing-rights basket.
The former French finance minister, who is 59, said she is “touched” by suggestions she run to become France’s president, though she is too “realistic” to focus on the idea.
The next French presidential election is scheduled for May 2017.
Lagarde often ranks as one of France’s most popular political figures and a Harris Interactive poll published this week showed that half of French people consider that she would make a good president.