Leiderman: Increasing exports is priority

New Bank of Israel Governor Prof. Leo Leiderman told "Yediot Ahronot," "Give me 100 days grace and we'll begin to see results."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yair Lapid last night declared that Prof. Leo Leiderman will be the ninth Governor of the Bank of Israel after Prof. Jacob Frenkel removed his candidacy at the beginning of the week.

In an interview with Yediot Ahronot, Leiderman said, It's very important now to get the Israeli economy back to growth. We must move the engines of growth in the economy with very much higher power. I'm certain that we can do it very soon. Give me 100 days grace and then we will already begin to see results."

Leiderman added, "We must mainly handle increasing exports and enlarging investments in the economy. Exports and investments have been slowing down for some time and we must get them back onto a better path towards the 2014 budget year so that they will then be working at full production."

Leiderman, 62, has served for nearly a decade as Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI) chief economist. He was born in Cordoba, Argentina and immigrated to Israel when he was 15. He received a B.A. in Economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago under the supervision of Nobel laureate Prof. Robert Lucas. He specializes in monetary policy including interest rates, inflation and exchange rates, the core of any central bank's activities. On these topics he has written over 70 articles in international periodicals and authored four books.

In the 1990s, Leiderman served as head of Tel Aviv University's Economics Department and in 1996 he was appointed by the then Governor Jacob Frenkel to head the Bank of Israel's research department. In 2000, with the appointment of Prof. David Klein as Governor, Leiderman resigned and left the public sector for the private world of banks and financial institutions. He became Deutsche Bank head of emerging markets and spent much of his time in New York and London. After several years, he returned to Israel and took up his current position at Bank Hapoalim and resumed lecturing at Tel Aviv University.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 1, 2013

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2013

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