Josef Tošovský

Josef Tošovský ( [ˈjozɛf ˈtoʃofskiː]) (born 28 September 1950) is a Czech economist and former governor of Czech National Bank (from 1993 to 2000). From 16 December 1997 to 17 July 1998 he was the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic in a caretaker government.

Tošovský graduated from the University of Economics, Prague. After completing his studies in 1973, he was employed by the State Bank of Czechoslovakia, where he held a number of posts. In 1989, he was appointed Governor of the State Bank of Czechoslovakia. Following the split of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic and the establishment of the Czech National Bank, he was appointed Governor of the Czech National Bank in 1993.

As Governor, Tošovský participated in drawing up the blueprint for economic reform and in implementing it in the monetary and banking areas. He took a leading part in drafting the legislative and institutional framework for the operation of the central bank in the market system, and managed the splitting of the Czechoslovak currency and central bank in connection with the break-up of the state.

In response to the political crisis in the Czech Republic at the end of 1997, President Václav Havel appointed Tošovský Prime Minister of the Czech Government. On 22 July 1998, Tošovský was reappointed as the CNB Governor. Tošovský stepped down as the Governor of the CNB at the end of November 2000. Since 1 December 2000 he has been Chairman of the Financial Stability Institute at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland.

Tošovský is an associate professor of the University of Economics, Prague and holds an honorary doctorate from Mendelova Universita Brno. He is a member of the board of the Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels; a member of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision; a member of the board of the Financial Services Volunteer Corps, New York and a member of the International Council of the Bretton Woods Committee, Washington.

Awards include: Central Banker of the Year (1993), European Manager of the Year (European Business Press Federation, 1994), the Karel Engliš Prize for Economics at Masaryk University in Brno (1994), European Banker of the Year (Group 20+1, 1996) and the EastWest Institute Award for Leadership in Transition (2001).

Tošovský is married and has two daughters.

In January 2007, the influential daily newspaper Mladá fronta DNES accused Tošovský of having cooperated with the Czechoslovak State Security. The Czech Office for Foreign Relations and Information (ÚZSI, civilian intelligence) denied any conscious cooperation of Tošovský with the State Security. Mladá fronta DNES later stated that Tošovský mainly performed economic analysis for the State Security agency and never gave any information leading to arrest or prosection by the State Security.

In August 2007, Russia nominated Tošovský to succeed Rodrigo Rato as the head the International Monetary Fund – as an alternative to the French candidate Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The Czech Republic immediately declared that it would not support Russia's nomination and would continue to stand behind the EU's one.