Foreign News;Greece names new finance minister

Greece on Tuesday named Yannis Stournaras, an affable and well-respected liberal economist, as the  new finance minister  after the sudden resignation of the first choice for the job at a crucial moment for the debt-laden country.

The new conservative-led government scrambled to make a quick decision on the post after banker Vassilis Rapanos quit on Monday on the advice of doctors after spending four days in hospital with dizziness and abdominal pains.

His sudden resignation threw the government into confusion at a time when it faces the daunting task of trying to persuade skeptical international lenders to ease the harsh terms of a bailout that has enraged the population.

With Greece weeks away from running out of cash and in desperate need of a minister to lead negotiations with lenders, party officials said the three ruling coalition leaders quickly agreed on Samaras’s choice of Stournaras, 55, who is nicknamed “Mr. Euro” in Greece.

He faces a difficult juggling act – pushing for more time and money from skeptical foreign lenders while coaxing reluctant officials at home to push through unpopular reforms.

“Stournaras is a serious, respected person who will inspire some confidence in the markets. But he is entering a bad government, where many old-style, spendthrift politicians are occupying key positions,” political analyst, John Loulis, said.

“He will have to wage a hard battle against them. He is entering the wolf’s lair and he won’t survive without the prime minister’s solid support.”

An economics professor at the University of Athens and the head of the influential IOBE think-tank, Stournaras most recently was development minister in the caretaker government that led Greece to elections on June 17.

He is considered a liberal economist and an ardent supporter of structural reforms to open up the economy and make it more competitive – ideas that are likely to win him favor with international lenders exasperated with the slow pace of reform.

He was part of the team that negotiated Greece’s entry to the euro in 2001, as chief economic adviser to former Prime Minister Costas Simitis.