Washington (AFP) – ECB President Christine Lagarde said Tuesday that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump should pay a visit to the institution’s Frankfurt headquarters following his recent criticism of central banks.
“He should come and visit us,” the European Central Bank chief said during an event at Bloomberg’s Washington offices, as financial leaders gather in the US capital for the annual meetings hosted by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
“I have thousands of hard working people — economists, jurists, computer scientists — and I can assure you that they work super hard every day, not just once a month,” she said. Lagarde was responding to comments Trump made earlier this month, when he suggested sarcastically that being the chair of the Federal Reserve — the US central bank — was “the greatest job in government.”
“You show up to the office once a month…flip a coin, and everybody talks about you like you are a god,” he said. Trump has repeatedly criticized Fed chair Jerome Powell — whom he first appointed — over his monetary policy choices.
Speaking Tuesday, Lagarde said the ECB was committed to securing the euro. “We defend the euro, and fight for the euro just as the Fed defends the dollar and fights for the dollar,” she said. “I don’t want to speak for Jay (Jerome) Powell, but I am sure that’s how he sees his job.”
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