Christine Lagarde expects to complete her ECB term, she tells WSJ

FRANKFURT, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Christine Lagarde expects completing her mission as president of the European Central Bank will take until the end of her term, she told the Wall Street Journal in an interview on Thursday, amid reports she would step down before her contract expired. 

Lagarde's comments come after the Financial Times reported on Wednesday that she planned to leave her job before the end of her contract in October 2027 and ahead of next year's French presidential election, to give outgoing French leader Emmanuel Macron a say in picking her successor.

“When I look back at all these years, I think that we have accomplished a lot, that I have accomplished a lot,” she said, adding, “We need to consolidate and make sure that this is really solid and reliable. So my baseline is that it will take until the end of my term.”  

Reuters exclusively reported on Thursday, Lagarde sent a private message to fellow policymakers later on Wednesday, reassuring them that she was still concentrating on her role of leading Europe's most important financial institution and that they would hear it from her, rather than the press, if she wanted to step down.

Like her message to colleagues, Lagarde's Journal interview dampened speculation about an early exit but left the door ajar to the possibility.

She declined to comment to the newspaper on the Financial Times report. The ECB said in a written statement that Lagarde had not made a decision about the end of her term, but stopped short of denying the report.

The ECB president said last year she intended to complete her term, a commitment she conspicuously failed to repeat this week.

When Lagarde's name first emerged as a possible candidate for ECB president in 2019, she said she had no interest in the job and would not leave the International Monetary Fund, where she was the managing director.

LAGARDE'S MANY OPTIONS

Lagarde told the Journal that she viewed her mission as price and financial stability, as well as "protecting the euro, making sure that it is solid and strong and fit for the future of Europe."  

She also said that the World Economic Forum was "one of the many options" she was considering once she left the central bank. 

Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau announced plans to step down from his job last week, in a move that gives Macron a chance to pick the next French central bank chief.

The French president picks the country's central bank governor and, as the head of the euro zone's second largest economy, plays an important role in wider negotiations to select the head of the ECB.

Polls show either far-right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen, or her protege Jordan Bardella, could win the French presidency.

While the party has long dropped a call for France to leave the euro, the party is still seen as something of an unknown quantity in central banking circles.

(Reporting by Abu Sultan in Bengaluru and Francesco Canepa in Frankfurt; Editing by Kim Coghill and Kate Mayberry)