Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg to become Norway’s next central bank governor

Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg has been named as Norway’s next central bank governor despite warnings that his appointment could threaten its independence and was untimely given the military alliance’s tensions with Russia.

Stoltenberg will most likely take over as governor at the end of December after stepping down from his Nato role at the end of September, the Norwegian government said on Friday.

Stoltenberg, a former Norwegian prime minister, will also take on responsibility for overseeing the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, the $1.3tn oil fund, which is based in the central bank.

“The combination of his financial background, understanding of society, and a leadership experience that few in Norway have, make him very suited to be the top manager of Norges Bank, an institution that manages important societal tasks for us all,” finance minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum said.

The announcement comes as Stoltenberg deals with Russia’s demands to change Europe’s security framework and as Moscow amasses more than 100,000 troops on the border of Ukraine and inside Belarus.

But the appointment is likely to cause political controversy in Norway, where parties representing a majority in parliament had already opposed him becoming governor, arguing it could undermine central bank independence given his close friendship with the centre-left prime minister in Oslo, Jonas Gahr Store.

“This is an unwise decision by the government. It is important that Norges Bank is independent and is perceived as independent. Now they’re choosing a party politician,” said Sveinung Rotevatn, a former environment minister and deputy leader of the centre-right Liberals.

Sylvi Listhaug, leader of the populist Progress party, immediately called for an investigation into the appointment, saying she was “critical” of it.

Other centre-right and some leftwing parties have criticised the “boy’s network” in Oslo that they say ensures top Labour politicians regularly get plum jobs in Norway.

Stoltenberg’s main rival for the governor job was Ida Wolden Bache, the current deputy governor and former head of monetary policy, who would have become the first woman in Norway to take the job.

The government said she would be interim central bank governor from March when the incumbent Oystein Olsen steps down until Stoltenberg takes over. Olsen called Stoltenberg “an engaged and competent economist” when congratulating him on Friday.

Stoltenberg has an economics degree from the University of Oslo and was finance minister in the 1990s, drawing up the informal spending rule still used to decide how much the government can take out of the oil fund each year.

Ine Eriksen Soreide, a Conservative MP who was foreign minister until last year, last month called on Stoltenberg to remain as Nato secretary-general, saying the “most serious security situation in Europe in many decades” was the wrong time to change jobs.