Surprise choice for Dutch central bank chief

Klaas Knot, deputy treasurer-general and director for the financial markets in the Dutch ministry of finance, has been announced as the next president of De Nederlandsche Bank.

Current president, Nout Wellink, will leave the central bank when his term expires at the beginning of July. Knot "was my first choice and also the central bank's first choice", said finance minister Jan Kees de Jager.

"The finance minister was looking for a person to combine vast monetary policy knowledge with the