Brazil welcomes Carstens' IMF bid; no backing yet

Brazil welcomed the Mexican central bank chief's candidacy for the IMF's top job on Wednesday as a step forward for emerging economies but stopped short of offering an endorsement, saying it needed more time to decide which candidate to back.

Agustin Carstens is in Brazil on the third leg of a global tour to drum up support for his underdog candidacy to lead the Washington-based International Monetary Fund against French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, who kicked off her own worldwide campaign in the South American country on Monday. While Brazil has been among the loudest voices calling for more say for emerging markets in global economic affairs, government sources have said the country is leaning toward Lagarde because she is seen as having more clout within the global lender to push through reforms. "Emerging economies are under-represented in the fund's leadership, especially Latin American countries," Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega said at a news conference with Carstens in the capital, Brasilia. Mantega added that it was important to have a candidate from an emerging economy for a job that has traditionally been held by a European, and that it would be a step forward if the next IMF chief was chosen on merit rather than nationality. Backing from the region's largest economy would be a major boost for Carstens, who said he had received expressions of support from much of Latin America despite having no official backing yet. In an interview with Reuters, he said he had a similar agenda to Lagarde but was better qualified to run the fund because he has more experience and better knowledge of the institution. "It is an agenda that is broadly shared. A very important difference is the capacity to lead. I know the institution from 360 degrees," he said, recalling his posts there as deputy managing director and executive director, as well as his 30 years as a civil servant and policy maker. Pragmatist? Carstens said he was mistakenly being labeled by some as an "orthodox" economist, mostly because he was trained at the University of Chicago. He said he was, in fact, a pragmatist who realized the need to adopt policies to specific situations. Carstens said his top priorities would be to deal with the euro zone crisis, support the transition in the Middle East, and push quota reforms to broaden representation at the IMF. The resignation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who stepped down as IMF managing director to defend himself against charges that include attempted rape, has led to calls from developing countries to end the traditional European lock on the job. Mexican President Felipe Calderon called his Brazilian counterpart Dilma Rousseff to ask for her support for Carstens' candidacy, a Brazilian government spokesman said. Brazil's foreign office confirmed late on Wednesday that South African President Jacob Zuma would call Rousseff on Thursday to press the case for a possible candidate of its own, former Finance Minister Trevor Manuel. During her visit to Brasilia on Monday, Lagarde told Brazil what it wanted to hear -- that she would push reforms to give emerging economies more say in IMF decision-making. Carstens has questioned the argument made by European Union leaders that a European IMF chief is needed to deal with the euro-zone crisis. He says an outsider would be in a better position to apply tough measures to help solve the crisis. Carstens has also said that a French government claim that Lagarde has the support of the G8 group of leading economies was political spin. The board has a June 30 deadline for picking a successor. Carstens will meet Brazil's central bank chief Alexandre Tombini in Sao Paulo on Thursday ahead of meetings with Argentine authorities on Friday.