By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is likely after Thursday’s Governing Council meeting in Berlin to state her intention to leave the ECB early next year, according to OMFIF on Tuesday.

“A public statement of intent is likely to ensue after Lagarde presides over a meeting of the ECB’s Governing Council in Berlin on 10 September,” OMFIF Chairman David Marsh wrote.

Lagarde, whose term formally runs until the end of October 2027, has long been expected to leave the ECB early, but there has been no particular indication that she would make a formal declaration on this specific occasion.

OMFIF said she was expected to leave early next year, allowing her to take up a position at an international organization, “probably the World Economic Forum.”

Marsh said an early Lagarde departure would allow French President Emmanuel Macron to help arrange a broader package governing the transition of the ECB Executive Board before he leaves office following France’s April 2027 presidential election.

OMFIF also claimed that a deadlock among the leading candidates to succeed Lagarde could lead European governments to consider an outside candidate, with former Banque de France Governor François Villeroy de Galhau potentially emerging as a “safe pair of hands.”