Washington (AFP)

She is used to being the first woman to hold influential leadership positions. She speaks frankly to the men in power. Christine Lagarde sees the threats to the global economy as the consequence of bad policies and urges them to change them.

It has been just a week since she left the post of Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

After eight years in the imposing building in Washington, she leaves with the feeling that the institution "is financially stronger, highly respected, very relevant," she confides in an exclusive interview with AFP.

First woman to lead the prestigious business law firm Baker McKenzie, first to occupy the post of French Minister of Economy and Finance (2007-2011) under the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, she was also the first woman to to be appointed, in 2011, to head the IMF.

At 63, she will also be the first to serve as President of the European Central Bank (ECB).

Asked what she will bring to the ECB, she responds spontaneously with a broad smile: "I'll answer later because we'll have to test!"

Before continuing: "I will bring everything I can bring, and what I have brought to the IMF will be available to the ECB, the ECB teams."

And to highlight his strong point: teamwork, the ability to gather skills.

- A touch of femininity -

"I did it here at the IMF with some success and I will try to make the same efforts at the European Central Bank, as in all the institutions where I have been," she says enthusiastically.

Before taking up her new position in Frankfurt, she paints a picture of the global economy, clouded not only by trade tensions between the United States and China but also by Brexit in Europe.

The one who has repeatedly called "to repair the roof during the weather", - taking a famous sentence of President John Kennedy - notes that growth is today "fragile" and " threatened. " Failing to have been heard.

Rejecting protectionist temptations and convinced that multilateralism is the only way forward, she calls on leaders to dialogue in an attempt to "solve the uncertainties surrounding the world".

"Whether it's trade relations, Brexit, technological threats, these are man-made problems that can be solved by man," she says, noting that little femininity would not hurt. "

The IMF lowered its global growth forecast to 3.2% at the end of July. Since then, he warned that trade tensions could further slow down expansion across the globe.

For its part, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) expects for 2019 the world's "weakest growth since the financial crisis", when it fell to 2.9% in 2008 before dive to -0.5% the following year.

"I will certainly continue to be determined to ensure that we focus on job creation, productivity, stability," says Christine Lagarde.

However, she insists that monetary institutions must "stick to economic facts and data" and must be "predictable".

"There is enough uncertainty around the world to not add uncertainty about what a central bank will do," she said.

While US President Donald Trump continues to criticize the US central bank and its president Jerome Powell, she also recalls having "constantly" defended the independence of central bankers.

Is she leaving with regrets? "There are countries that we have helped over time where I would have liked to see a completed program or (...) that it be more successful," she admits.

Coming back to the controversial assistance to Argentina, she believes that without the help of the Fund, the economic crisis would have been "much worse".

"I have no doubt about it," she concludes.

© 2019 AFP