Cyprus to pick new central banker “soon”

Financial economics professor Panicos Demetriades is most likely to be appointed the new Cyprus central bank governor and representative at the European Central Bank, news reports said.
The report in the Politis daily was the first to suggest a definitive outcome after widespread rumours over several weeks that Demetriades would succeed Athanasios Orphanides. However, sources close to the matter said on Tuesday the report was "premature".
Demetriades, a Cambridge graduate who teaches at the University of Leicester in the UK, had been approached and agreed to take up the position, Politis reported.
Orphanides has served a five-year term which expires on April 30.
"We will make an announcement when we have to," President Demetris Christofias told reporters. "There is a date when the term of the governor ends, and at the right time there will be an announcement."
Orphanides, who is widely respected abroad, has chilly relations with the government over issues ranging from his positions on wage indexation to regulatory issues.
His only public ally in the government, finance minister Kikis Kazamias, resigned for health reasons earlier this month.
If he is not reappointed he loses his seat at the ECB, where he advocated ultra-low interest rates at the height of the financial crisis and was a key architect of a bond purchase programme credited with keeping a lid on the euro zone's debt troubles.