Born and raised inParis, Lagarde graduated from law school atParis Nanterre University and obtained a Master's degree fromSciences Po Aix. After being admitted to the Paris Bar, she joined the international law firmBaker & McKenzie as an associate in 1981, specializing in labour and anti-trust, as well as mergers and acquisitions. Rising through the ranks, she was a member of the executive committee of the firm from 1995 until 1999, before being elevated to its Chair between 1999 and 2004; she was the first woman in both positions. She held the top post until she decided to go into public service.
Lagarde returned to France when appointed Minister of Foreign Trade from 2005 to 2007, then briefly served asMinister of Agriculture and Fisheries from May to June 2007, and finally, as Minister of Finance from 2007 to 2011, making her the first woman to hold the finance portfolio of anyGroup of Eight economy. During her tenure, Lagarde oversaw the government response to the2008 financial crisis, for which theFinancial Times ranked her the best finance minister in theEurozone.[2]
On 5 July 2011, she was elected to replaceDominique Strauss-Kahn as managing director of the IMF for a five-year term.[3][4][5] Her appointment was the 11th consecutive appointment of a European to head the IMF.[6] She was selected by consensus for a second five-year term, starting 5 July 2016, being the only candidate nominated for the post.[7] In December 2016, a French court convicted her of negligence relating to her role in theBernard Tapie arbitration,[8] but did not impose a penalty. Lagarde resigned from the IMF following her nomination as president of the ECB.
Christine Lagarde was born inParis, France,[13] into a family of teachers. Her father, Robert Lallouette, "born to aJewish mother and a French father",[14] was anEnglish teacher; her mother, Nicole (Carré),[15] was aLatin,Greek andFrench literature teacher. Lagarde and her three younger brothers spent their childhood inLe Havre. There she attended the Lycée François 1er (where her father taught) and Lycée Claude Monet.[16][17][18]
Lagarde joinedBaker & McKenzie, a large Chicago-based international law firm, in 1981. She was a director of two of the firm's subsidiaries in tax havens.[26] She handled majorantitrust and labour cases, was made partner after six years and was named head of the firm in Western Europe. She joined the executive committee in 1995 and was elected the company's first female chairman in October 1999.[27][28][29][30] Three years later she was reelected. At Baker & McKenzie Lagarde promulgated a “client first” approach whereby lawyers anticipated client needs rather than solely reacting to exigent situations.[31]
In 2004, Lagarde became president of the Global Strategic Committee.[32]
As France's trade minister between 2005 and May 2007, Lagarde prioritized opening new markets for the country's products, focusing on the technology sector. On 18 May 2007, she was moved to the Ministry of Agriculture as part of the government ofFrançois Fillon.[33] The following month she joined Fillon's cabinet in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Finance and Employment.[34] She was the only member of the French political class to condemnJean-Paul Guerlain's racist remarks of 2010.[35] In government, she implementedliberal economic reforms, such as liberalizing the labor market, loweringestate taxes, and anausterity plan for public services.[36]
On 25 May 2011, Lagarde announced her candidacy to be head of the IMF to succeedDominique Strauss-Kahn, upon his resignation.[37] Her candidacy received the support of the British, Indian, United States, Brazilian, Russian, Chinese and German governments.[38][39][40][41][42] The governor of theBank of Mexico (and formerSecretary of Finance)Agustín Carstens was also nominated for the post. His candidacy was supported by many Latin American governments, as well as Spain, Canada and Australia.[38]
On 28 June 2011, theIMF board elected Lagarde as its next managing director and chairman for a five-year term, starting on 5 July 2011.[3][4][5] The IMF's executive board praised both Lagarde and Carstens as well-qualified, but decided on the former byconsensus. Lagarde became the first woman to be elected as the head of the IMF.[3] Carstens would have been the first non-European. Her appointment came amid the intensification of theEuropean sovereign debt crisis especially in Greece, with fears looming of loan defaults. The United States in particular supported her speedy appointment in light of the fragility of Europe's economic situation.[43]
U.S. Treasury SecretaryTimothy Geithner said that Lagarde's "exceptional talent and broad experience will provide invaluable leadership for this indispensable institution at a critical time for the global economy."[5]PresidentNicolas Sarkozy referred to Lagarde's appointment as "a victory for France."Oxfam, a charity working indeveloping nations, called the appointment process "farcical" and argued that what it saw as a lack of transparency hurt the IMF's credibility.[44]
On 17 December 2015,Michel Sapin, French Finance Minister, said that Lagarde could stay on as head of the IMF, despite being charged with criminal negligence.[45] Throughout her time at the IMF, she repeatedly ruled herself out of the races to secure a top job in Europe, including the positions ofPresident of the European Commission andPresident of the European Central Bank.[46] On 2 July 2019, Lagarde was nominated to serve as the next president of the ECB, to succeedMario Draghi.[47] She subsequently submitted her resignation as managing director.[48]
In July 2010, Lagarde told thePBS NewsHour that the IMF's lending program for distressed European countries was "a very massive plan, totally unexpected, totally counter-treaty, because it wasn't scheduled in the treaty that we should do a bailout program, as we did." She also said, "we had essentially a trillion dollars on the table to confront any market attack that would target any country, whether it's Greece, Spain, Portugal, or anybody within the eurozone." With respect to theFrench economy, she stated that besides short-term stimulus efforts: "we must, very decisively, cut our deficit and reduce our debt."[50]
In public remarks made right after her appointment, Lagarde stated that both the IMF and EU required Greek austerity measures as a prerequisite for further aid. She said, "If I have one message tonight about Greece, it is to call on the Greek political opposition to support the party that is currently in power in a spirit of national unity."[5] She said of her predecessor that: "The IMF has taken up the challenges of the crisis thanks to the actions of Managing DirectorDominique Strauss-Kahn and to his team as well."[41] On 25 December 2011, Lagarde argued that the world economy was at risk and urged Europeans to unify in terms of the debt crisis facing the continent.[51]
In July 2012, as theGreek economy continued to decline, and the country's leaders asked for an easing of the terms of external assistance, Lagarde said she was "not in the negotiation or renegotiation mood at all."[52][53] A year later, though, with her own organization conceding that its "rescue" package for Greece had fallen short of what was required, Lagarde—having previously said that Greece's debt burden was "sustainable"—decided that Greece would not recover unless its debt was written off in a meaningful way.[54][55] According toYanis Varoufakis, the combative formerFinance Minister of Greece, Lagarde and others at the top of the IMF were quite sympathetic behind closed doors, while stating that inside the Eurogroup there were "a few kind words and that was it".[56] As the crisis peaked again in summer 2015, Lagarde's organization made headlines by calling for massive debt relief for Greece,[57] a call she reiterated personally.[58] In 2016, the IMF refused to participate with eurozone countries in further emergency financing for Greece, because concrete measures to relieve the country of its debt burden remained absent.[59]
In an interview in May 2012, Lagarde was asked about theGreek government-debt crisis. She mentioned Greek tax avoidance, and assented to the interviewer's suggestion that Greeks had "had a nice time" but now "it is payback time."[61][62] Her comments provoked controversy, with futureGreek Prime MinisterAlexis Tsipras stating, "We don't need her compassion," and then-Deputy Prime MinisterEvangelos Venizelos saying she had "insulted the Greek people."[63][64] In an effort to quell the negative response, the next day Lagarde made a post to her Facebook page saying: "As I have said many times before, I am very sympathetic to the Greek people and the challenges they are facing."[65] Within 24 hours, over 10,000 comments had been left in response, many of them obscene.[63]
In response to Lagarde's belief that not enough Greeks paid their taxes, Professor EmeritusJohn Weeks of theUniversity of London said, "The moral weight of Christine Lagarde's matronising of the Greeks to pay their taxes is not strengthened by the fact that, as director of the IMF, she is in receipt of a tax-free annual salary of $468,000 (£298,000, plus perks)."[66][67] Robert W. Wood, in aForbes article, wrote that "No taxes is the norm for most United Nations employees covered by a convention on diplomatic relations signed by most nations."[68]
In January 2015, on the death ofKingAbdullah of Saudi Arabia, Lagarde said "he was a strong believer in pushing forward women's rights",[69] prompting a number of observers to comment on the life of women generally inSaudi Arabia.[70]
In 2019, the IMF granted Argentina a loan of $57 billion - equivalent to 10% of GDP. The loan, then the largest in the Fund's history, sparked controversy within the financial institution, as such a sum was far too high for such an economically fragile country. U.S. PresidentDonald Trump and IMF President Christine Lagarde, however, interceded to have this loan request validated to supportMauricio Macri, struggling in the polls in the run-up to the2019 presidential election. To get this deal through the official analysis grid, IMF teams used growth assumptions that would turn out to be profoundly unrealistic. The loan was then disbursed very quickly, before the election, but would lead Argentina into a serious debt crisis, with the country unable to meet its debts.[71]
In September 2019 writers forBloomberg opined that as president Lagarde was expected to maintain the accommodative monetary policy of her predecessor,Mario Draghi.[73] When addressing the European Parliament'sECON Committee ahead of her appointment, Lagarde also expressed her willingness to make the ECB play a role in fighting climate change[74] and to carry out a review of the ECB's monetary policy framework.[75] In July 2019 Prince Michael of Liechtenstein worried that Lagarde had "been extremely supportive of heavy deficit spending and cheap money" and felt that this fact portended ill.[76] Writers at theWall Street Journal felt that her strength lay in her flexibility, and she was "a diplomat and negotiator, not a technocrat or economist".[77]
One of Lagarde's first initiatives at the helm of the ECB was to launch an overall strategic review, an exercise not conducted at the ECB for 17 years; theFinancial Times opined that this change "set up a clash" with the head of theDeutsche Bundesbank,Jens Weidmann. By contrast, theBanque de France governorFrançois Villeroy de Galhau (and member of the ECB’s governing council) was supportive,[78] as well as an open letter whose 164 signatories included academics, economists, trade unions and environmental activists and 62 organizations likeGreenpeace andAttac, who characterized the plan for the ECB to purchase financial instruments of thefossil fuel industry as "particularly shocking" .[79] As part of this exercise, she successfully pushed the ECB to adopt an action plan to address climate change. The action plan resulted in the implementation ofgreen rules ("tilting") in the purchase of corporate bonds programme.[80]
In July 2024 Lagarde told reporters inFrankfurt that "implementing the EU’s revised economic governance framework fully and without delay will help governments bring down budget deficits and debt ratios on a sustained basis. This was discussed, and we believe that it’s a very strong endorsement of the principle of discipline, so that all member states that have adhered and agreed to a set of rules under the fiscal governance framework will actually apply those rules and principles." At the time, Belgium, Greece, Spain, France and Italy were considered by the ECB "high risk in the medium term".France andItaly were among several nations "scolded in June [2024] by theEuropean Commission for running deficits well above the bloc’s 3 per cent ceiling."[81] Another publication said she warned at theECB Forum inSintra about respect for EU budgetary rules: the ECB was "concerned about the fiscal rules that must be respected within the EU and the structural reforms that will lead to an improvement in productivity, which is the only way for Europe to remain strong and prosperous."[82]
In September 2024 Lagarde announced that the ECB's primary interest rate would be cut to 3.5% because of weak eurozone growth, following of drop of inflation to 2.2%.[83]
On 12 September 2024, after theDraghi report on EU competitiveness had been published, Lagarde said that the ECB would not help individual member states implement its recommendations: "Structural reforms are not the responsibility of the central bank — they are the responsibility of governments."[84]
In 2010 Lagarde, then finance minister of France, sent a list of 1,991 names of Greek customers who were potential tax avoiders with bank accounts atHSBC's Geneva branch to the Greek government.[90]
On 28 October 2012, Greek reporter and editorKostas Vaxevanis claimed to be in possession of the list and published a document with more than 2,000 names in his magazineHot Doc.[91][92] He was immediately arrested on charges of breaching privacy laws with a possible sentence of up to two years in prison.[93] After a public outcry, Vaxevanis was found not guilty three days later.[94] Vaxevanis then faced a retrial (the Greek authorities were yet to charge anyone on the list),[95] but was acquitted again. A few days before the Greek general elections of January 2015, when it was clear that left-wing Syriza would come to power, the financial crimes police of the conservative government ofAntonis Samaras shredded reams of documents pertaining to corruption cases.[96]
Conviction of negligence in allowing the misuse of public funds
On 3 August 2011, La Cour de Justice de la République, a special court in France set up to judge ministers and public officials for alleged crimes committed while in office, ordered an investigation into Lagarde's role in a €403 million arbitration deal in favour of businessmanBernard Tapie when she was finance minister in 2007.[97] On 20 March 2013, Lagarde's apartment in Paris was raided by French police as part of the investigation.[98] On 24 May 2013, after two days of questioning at theCourt of Justice of the Republic (CJR), Lagarde was assigned the status of "assisted witness", meaning that she herself was not under investigation in the affair.[99] According to a press report from June 2013, Lagarde was described byStéphane Richard, the CEO ofFrance Telecom (a former aide to Lagarde when she was finance minister), who was himself put under formal investigation in the case, as having been fully briefed before approving the arbitration process which benefitted Bernard Tapie.[100][101]
In 2013, the press revealed an undated hand-written letter seized by investigators during a search of Christine Lagarde's Paris home, in which she appears to express her full allegiance to then-PresidentNicolas Sarkozy: "Use me for as long as it suits you and suits your action and your casting. (...) If you use me, I need you as a guide and as a support: without a guide, I risk being ineffective, without a support I risk having little credibility. With my immense admiration. Christine L."[102]
Subsequently, in August 2014 the CJR announced that it had formally approved a negligence investigation into Lagarde's role in the arbitration of the Tapie case.[103] On 17 December 2015, the CJR ordered Lagarde to stand trial before it for alleged negligence in handling the Tapie arbitration approval.[104][105][106]
In December 2016, the court found Lagarde guilty of negligence but declined to impose either a fine or a custodial penalty.[107]
Lagarde has had three known partners. The first is the French financial analyst Wilfried Lagarde, with whom she has two sons, Pierre-Henri Lagarde (born 1986) and Thomas Lagarde (born 1988); they married in 1982 and divorced in 1992.[126][127] The second is the British businessman Eachran Gilmour; sources differ on whether they were ever married.[128] Since 2006, her partner has been the entrepreneur Xavier Giocanti fromMarseille,[129] a fellow-student at Université Paris X.[130][131] Some sources say they have married, but not when.[132][133]
She is a health-conscious vegetarian,[134][133] and her hobbies include regular trips to the gym, cycling, and swimming.[18]
She speaks French, English and Spanish.[127] After she took office as president of the European Central Bank, it was reported that she intended to learn German.[135]
^Matina Stevis; Ian Talley (5 June 2013)."IMF Concedes It Made Mistakes on Greece".wsj.com. Retrieved10 June 2013.In an internal document marked "strictly confidential," the IMF said it badly underestimated the damage that its prescriptions of austerity would do to Greece's economy, which has been mired in recession for the last six years. ... Over the last three years, a number of senior IMF figures, including Managing Director Christine Lagarde, have repeatedly said that Greece's debt level was 'sustainable'—likely to be repaid in full and on time.
^Helena Smith (3 June 2013)."Greece's creditors close to writing off some of its debt".The Guardian. London. Retrieved3 June 2013.In an implicit recognition that the eurozone's weakest member state will never recover unless some of its debt is forgiven, the International Monetary Fund's managing director, Christine Lagarde, said that Athens' debt pile, projected to reach a staggering 185% of GDP this year, would remain high 'well into the next decade'.
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