Belgian gets top ECB economics post

EUROPEAN Central Bank President Mario Draghi agreed to put Belgium’s Peter Praet in charge of the bank’s economics division, ignoring calls from Germany that one of its nationals should keep the job.

Praet, 62, will be the first non-German to hold the role since the ECB was founded in 1998 and was a specialist in financial regulation at the Belgian central bank before joining the ECB’s Executive Board in June. Germany’s Joerg Asmussen will be responsible for international relations. France’s Benoit Coeure, another candidate for the economics job, will be in charge of market operations from March.

Draghi’s move sidesteps the political question of whether former finance ministry officials from either Berlin or Paris should mould the ECB’s economic analysis as policy makers are scrambling to end the debt crisis.