Madrid: Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy named a former Lehman Brothers Holdings banker and a budget professor as his finance chiefs, tasking them with overhauling an economy that risks being engulfed by the debt crisis.
Luis de Guindos, former deputy finance minister and head of Lehman in Iberia, was sworn in as minister for economy and competition yesterday. Cristobal Montoro, budget minister when the People's Party was last in power, returns to the same post with further responsibility for public administration. Rajoy created the roles to replace Elena Salgado, who did both jobs in the last government as well as being deputy prime minister.
The PP government inherits from the Socialists a stagnant economy with a 23 per cent jobless rate and a banking industry that is squeezing credit at the fastest pace on record. Spain's financing costs last month approached the level that pushed Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek bailouts, and the European Commission expects the nation to miss its budget goal this year.
De Guindos, 51, comes from the PricewaterhouseCoopers and IE Business School Centre for Finance in Madrid, which he led. He also says austerity must be accompanied by measures to overhaul the economy.
