"Now in its third year, the Financial Times guide to Europe's finance ministers benchmarks performance, to reveal who is the best performing and most respected - as well as potential future stars. Hungary's János Veres came in 16th on the 19-member list. His Czech, Polish and Slovakian peers all finished before him.The FT stressed that the challenges this year were “greater than ever".
“The troubles might have started across the Atlantic but the real economic impact on Europe of the near-collapse of the banking sector has been severe, sending many countries plunging into recession ahead of the US," the paper noted.
The winner of this year's competition is Finland's Jyrki Katainen , who did not really want to be finance minister, preferring the post of foreign minister. The finance ministers of Germany and Luxembourg are there beside Katainen on the imaginary medal stand.
The Slovak Finmin Jan Pociatek (6th) is a close ally of PM Robert Fico, and “has shaped a relatively orthodox economic policy despite the government's populist rhetoric," the FT said.
Poland's Jacek Rostowski (11th) “has long advocated Polish entry to the eurozone, at one point suggesting Poland should do so unilaterally. Since becoming finance minister in 2007, he has been one of the strongest backers of Polish entry to the common currency, suggesting it would insulate the nation from the shocks being experienced by developing countries," the FT said.
Miroslav Kalousek of the Czech Republic “has been an advocate of pushing economic reforms through the evenly-divided parliament" and has been “relatively enthusiastic about the euro" against the views of many other Czechs.
Regarding Hungary's Finance Minister Veres , the FT praised him for doing the best he could in a remarkably tough situation.
“For a man dealt an impossible card, János Veres has proved a remarkably realist custodian of Hungary's finances. Confronted with an electorate that has repeatedly shown itself allergic to spending cuts, he has chosen to make full use of his limited room for manoeuvre. But the shock of the USD 25 bn International Monetary Fund-led bail out of Hungary recently may change the political equation in a country accustomed to high state spending," the FT said."
Source: Portfolio Online Financial Journal
21.11.2008