Little-known economist nominated to head Polish central bank

Lech Kaczynski, Poland's president, surprised financial markets on Tuesday evening when he nominated a little known economist, Jan Sulmicki, to be the country's new central bank governor.

Mr Sulmicki, a professor at the Warsaw School of Economics, will replace Leszek Balcerowicz, the respected architect of the 1989 reforms that transformed Poland from a communist into a capitalist country. More recently Mr Balcerowicz has had a tempestuous relationship with the government headed by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the president's twin brother.

Mr Sulmicki still has to be approved by parliament, where the president's Law and Justice party is part of a majority coalition.

As an academic Mr Sulmicki specialised in issues of European integration and long-term changes in the world economy. In the 1990s he was the Polish representative on the board of the World Bank in Washington.

President Kaczynski has said in the past that he disagreed with many of the policies of Mr Balcerowicz and wanted a less dominant figure to be central bank chief. Mr Balcerowicz has been attacked by the ruling party and its allies, who accuse him of selling off state assets too cheaply in the early 1990s and of introducing changes that led to larger social stratification than had been the case under communism.

Ryszard Petru, chief economist of BPH bank, called Mr Sulmicki's nomination a "surprise" because he is almost unknown.

"He seems to be a decent economist but he has never worked with monetary policy issues in the past," he said. "But others have been able to learn that. Overall, he seems to be a fairly neutral candidate."

Source:news.moneycentral.msn.com