By Sergio Goncalves
LISBON (Reuters) -The Portuguese government will decide next week whether to replace or reappoint Bank of Portugal Governor Mario Centeno, whose five-year term ends on Saturday, Finance Minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento said on Friday.
Centeno has been the target of frequent criticism from the political right, now in power, for moving from his role as finance minister in a previous Socialist administration to the central bank in 2020, a move detractors said undermined the institution’s independence.
Miranda Sarmento has previously said the cabinet would consider whether to reappoint Centeno, who has been a vocal so-called “dove” favouring looser monetary policy at the European Central Bank, or replace him towards the end of his term.
Friday’s cabinet meeting ended without a decision, however.
The minister gave no further comment on the likelihood of Centeno being replaced after months of speculation that centre-right Prime Minister Luis Montenegro was looking for a new central bank chief, despite Centeno’s strong European credentials at the ECB and as Eurogroup president in 2018-2020.
The central bank declined to comment. Centeno has previously said he is ready to continue leading the institution.
Central bank governors are proposed by the finance minister and nominated by the cabinet for a five-year term and can be reappointed once.
The nominee must submit to questioning by a parliamentary committee – which has no power to block the nomination – before the government can officially appoint him or her.
Portugal’s parliament began its summer recess until September on Thursday, although committees can still hold hearings through next Friday.
It is not uncommon for heads of regulatory bodies in Portugal to remain in office months after their terms expire.
Filipe Garcia, head of Informacao de Mercados Financeiros consultants, said the fact that the government had not denied speculation that Montenegro sought to replace Centeno suggested that his days at the helm of the central bank were numbered.
Several names of potential successors have circulated in Portuguese media recently, including the Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Joao Cabral dos Santos, and former CEO of Portugal’s Novo Banco, Antonio Ramalho.
(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves. Editing by Andrei Khalip and Mark Potter)
