Ireland names New Zealand Treasury boss Gabriel Makhlouf as central bank chief

Gabriel Makhlouf was charged with broadening the scope of the Treasury and producing a wellbeing budget in 2019. Photo/Greg Bowker.

New Zealand's Treasury boss is leaving the job to take over the reins at Ireland's Central Bank.

Ireland named Gabriel Makhlouf, chief economic and financial adviser to New Zealand's government, as the nation's new central bank governor in a surprise appointment.

Until now, Makhlouf has served as the New Zealand Treasury secretary and chief executive.

The 52-year-old will succeed Philip Lane, who is moving to the European Central Bank, according to the finance ministry in Dublin. The appointment is something of a surprise, with Deputy Governor Sharon Donnery tipped by bookmaker's favourite.

Born in Egypt of British and Greek parentage, Makhlouf's appointment continues a trend of hiring of foreigners with international experience for central banks in recent years. He is, however, the first non-Irish national to take over the Irish bank.

Mark Carney, a Canadian by birth, is nearing the end of his term as Bank of England Governor, while Stanley Fischer served as Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve having previously run the Bank of Israel.

Makhlouf is head of New Zealand's Treasury, having previously worked in the UK civil service where his responsibilities included policy development on domestic and international tax and welfare policy issues.

Makhlouf has recently focused on broadening the scope of Treasury to take wellbeing into account.

For Donnery, it's a second blow in less than a year. She was considered the frontrunner to head the ECB's supervision arm, but lost out to Italy's Andrea Enria when policymakers cast a secret ballot in November. That in part may have been because her selection could have been an obstacle to Lane being named the ECB's chief economist a few months later.

The ECB's rebuff of Donnery undermined the institution's gender-diversity drive. Just one of the six policymakers on the current Executive Board -- which is appointed by euro-area governments - is female, and every single central bank chief in the region is male. The ECB has repeatedly called for more women in the Executive Board and the Governing Council.

- Bloomberg