{"text":[[{"start":5.76,"text":"Christine Lagarde announced on Thursday that she would resign from the presidency of the European Central Bank in February, months ahead of the end of her term. Considering her tough and rather nervy start, Lagarde, only the fourth president in the ECB’s 28-year history, leaves behind a central bank in decent shape."}],[{"start":23.515,"text":"She had big shoes to fill on taking office, following the “saviour of the euro” Mario Draghi. Some questioned the wisdom of putting a non-economist and former politician at the helm of the central bank. They need not have worried. After an early wobble — Lagarde famously said “we are not here to close spreads” during the Covid-19 pandemic a few months into her tenure, setting off bond market jitters — she developed a firm grip on monetary policy communication, helping to cement the institution’s credibility."}],[{"start":54.688,"text":"The greatest proof of that credibility is how the ECB fulfilled its inflation-fighting mandate after the dramatic energy price shock of 2022. While it displayed the same inertia as other major central banks in moving to tighten policy, it belatedly but successfully brought inflation back to its 2 per cent target in late 2024. Though the ECB held interest rates on Thursday, markets expect further tightening will be necessary to bring price growth back under control amid the ongoing supply shock from the Iran war."}],[{"start":85.943,"text":"To be sure, the Eurozone has enjoyed a portion of good luck too. The European economy has weathered soaring energy prices better than expected. The global stimulus from US tech investment has buoyed economic growth in the euro area too, just as monetary policy has contained domestic demand."}],[{"start":103.681,"text":"Lagarde has proved herself an institution-builder, and not being an economist may have underpinned this. She has listened carefully to her colleagues, and has by all accounts turned the 27-member governing council into a harmonious, collegiate body. That achievement matters all the more in a multi-country monetary union, where national allegiances can still run strong."}],[{"start":124.869,"text":"Given the intensifying attention financial markets are paying to the fiscal woes of France, Lagarde’s home country, now may be an opportune moment to step down. On her watch, the ECB has created the Transmission Protection Instrument, a monetary policy tool to address speculative attacks on a Eurozone country’s sovereign debt. She has been fortunate, however, that member states’ bond markets have not been seriously put to the test during her tenure."}],[{"start":153.225,"text":"Market observers seem confident the central bank has the means and the will to prevent the sort of market unravelling that happened during the Eurozone debt crisis. Should a decision ever be required to use the instrument for France, however, there will be one less complication if the president is not French."}],[{"start":170.889,"text":"On one of her own biggest causes, Lagarde may not have been able to push as far she wanted: the greening of monetary policy has rather fallen out of fashion in the broader backlash against the green transition. Nor has the ECB pushed as hard as it could to boost the international use of the euro."}],[{"start":188.698,"text":"In contrast, on Lagarde’s watch the ECB has moved to the global frontier of developing public digital money at both the wholesale and retail levels. The institution is forging ahead with making wholesale central bank digital currency available to settle tokenised securities trades, and a retail digital euro is only a few years away pending a final political decision. Although not widely known, this may end up the most consequential legacy of the Lagarde years. In this, too, she leaves a stronger legacy than many of her initial critics thought she would."}],[{"start":226.6,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1793329275_7126.mp3"}