Central Banker & Finance Minister of the year 2008 - The Banker

The Banker salutes the world’s top central bank governors who have shown unflinching leadership during the credit crunch, helped rejuvenate their country’s economies and succeeded in opening up once opaque financial structures.

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Under Henrique Meirelles, the Central Bank of Brazil has emerged as a model of restraint and prudence in Latin America. Facing a welcome boom in inflows of direct and portfolio investment and domestic demand, the bank has reacted with a predictable, well-communicated and conservative strategy on interest rates.

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Ghana’s economy has been transformed by dint of the efforts of Paul Acquah, the governor of the central bank. When he took over six years ago, the country was on the brink of disaster. Today it is the envy of all Africa with a solid and reliable growth rate, inflation under control and a substantial internal economy.

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Saudi Arabia’s financial sector is evolving significantly amid major upheavals in global financial markets and oil prices touching $100 a barrel. While 2006 produced a rocky ride in Saudi stock markets, 2007 has witnessed a continuing economic boom and the accruing benefits of a long-term transformation as liberalisation measures taken over recent years come into force.

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Despite the political turmoil surrounding president Pervez Musharraf and the upcoming elections, Pakistan’s underlying economy has witnessed significant developments and growth over the past two years and governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (central bank) Dr Shamshad Akhtar has been able to restructure many aspects of the economy and implement many new policies in the banking sector, including an important financial inclusion strategy.

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Attacking corruption, addressing tax evasion and overhauling collection methods as well as applying a healthy dose of bank consolidation have all influenced The Banker’s selection of the world’s leading finance ministers .

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Like other major emerging markets, Mexico’s situation in the current crisis is relatively benign and the credit for this rests with a number of ministers, central bank governors and administrations. As a result, Mexico’s interest rates, inflation and financial sector are all in a stable condition.

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Following the disastrous financial crisis of 2001, Turkey managed to turn its economy around and achieve record annual growth of 7.4% in the five years from 2002-06. While the economy slowed early in 2007 it gained momentum after the elections in July, and although lower-than-trend growth is expected for 2007, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently forecast growth to settle at around a healthy 6% in 2008 and 2009.

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Jose Pedro de Morais, the finance minister of Angola, has been a foremost figure in the country’s economic rebirth over the past four years. This powerful technocrat has won the confidence of the president to move Angola forward from decline and dissension to a point where local commentators and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) alike express admiration, bordering on incredulity.

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After sluggish growth earlier in the decade a broad-ranging financial reform programme initiated in 2004 is slowly but significantly beginning to reshape the Egyptian economy producing record growth, massively increased privatisations and a revamped and reinvigorated banking sector.

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