Germany's Merkel names new top economic adviser - Jun. 06, 2011

Germany’s Merkel names new top economic adviser

Published June 6, 2011 at 1:31 pm

German Chancellor Angela Merkel adresses the media during a news conference after a meeting of top representatives of the German power and transportation economy at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Monday, May 16, 2011. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that it is \"important not to engage in assumptions of guilt\" while legal proceedings against the head of the International Monetary Fund are ongoing. Dominique Strauss-Kahn was taken into custody in New York over an alleged sexual assault on a hotel maid on Saturday - a day before he was due to meet Merkel. The German leader said Monday that the question of whether the Frenchman will have to be replaced at the IMF \"does not arise today.\" But she is indicating that Germany would like the fund's next leader to be a European - as has traditionally been the case.

Photo by AP

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has named the president of a renowned business school as her new economic policy adviser.

Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said Monday Lars-Hendrik Moeller who heads Berlin’s European School of Management and Technology will counsel Merkel on economic issues.

Seibert praised Moeller as "a renowned economist with international experience who also has excellent knowledge of economic policy in the context of the European Union."

Merkel, the leader of Europe’s biggest economy, had not permanently filled the position for four months despite the lingering European sovereign debt crisis.

Moeller, a former economist with the European Commission, replaces Jens Weidmann who left the chancellery in February to become the new president of Germany’s central bank.