BICOM

Stanley Fischer announced yesterday that he will leave his position as Governor of the Bank of Israel at the end of June, two years before the end of his second five-year term. Fischer is expected to make a public statement this morning, but it is thought that the 69-year-old is standing down due to personal considerations.

During his eight years at the head of Israel’s central bank, Fischer is credited with having successfully steered the country through the global financial crisis. During his tenure, unemployment has shrunk from 11 to 7 per cent, Israel’s GDP has risen by 15 per cent and the rate of inflation has remained close to 2 per cent. The Financial Times describes Fischer’s record at the Bank of Israel as “remarkable.” Fischer was also instrumental in promoting Israel’s successful bid for acceptance into the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Fischer moved to Israel from the United States to take up his current position in 2005. He had previously served as the chief economist at the World Bank in the late 1980s and as first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund from 1994 to 2001.

Prime Minister Netanyahu accepted Fischer’s resignation yesterday, calling him a “central partner in the state of Israel’s economic growth and economic achievements,” adding “His [Fischer’s] experience, his wisdom and his international connections opened a door to the economies of the world.”

Haaretz speculates that among the leading candidates to take over from Fischer are Avi Ben-Bassat, a former-director general at the Finance Ministry and Manuel Trajtenberg, who headed a committee which proposed a set of economic reforms following the summer 2011 social protests.