Geithner may be eyeing US Treasury exit

United States Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner may leave office this year, it was reported yesterday.

Geithner, who has been in the post since February 2009, is said to be weighing "family considerations" in his decision.

He has been under fire virtually during his entire time in the job, especially from congressional critics, in one of the most tumultuous periods in American financial history.

He is the last remaining senior member of President Barack Obama's original economic team.

But Geithner is keen to complete the negotiations with Congress over reducing the US budget deficit and reset a ceiling on the national debt.

Both have proved extremely contentious, so much so that some Republicans are threatening to force the Treasury to default on its bonds when the debt ceiling is reached, probably on August 2. In reality, commentators suggest there will be no resolution of the problem until after the presidential election in November next year, and possibly not even then.

If Geithner, 49, does depart, he may leave Obama even more exposed as the economy becomes the key political issue determining his chances of a second term.

In weekend interviews Geithner declared he would remain at his Treasury post "for the foreseeable future" and evaded answering direct questions about his immediate intentions, after US media reports that he was thinking about his own exit strategy from the Obama Administration.

"We have a lot of challenges as a country, and I'm going to be doing it for the foreseeable future," he said.

The Bloomberg news agency cited unnamed sources as saying family considerations were among the factors Geithner was weighing up.

- INDEPENDENT