The choice of career banker Tatyana Paramonova as acting head of Russia's Central Bank is good news for the economy, but her appointment is probably temporary, experts said Wednesday.


"She's a nice, tough lady," said former Finance Minister Boris Fyodorov, who had been touted as a possible successor to former chairman Viktor Gerashchenko. "Quite probably she is just a caretaker."


Paramonova, 43, was in charge of the Central Bank's balance sheets and its credit and budget policy until Gerashchenko resigned from the chairman's post Friday.


Andrei Illarionov, head of the pro-market Institute for Economic Analysis in Moscow, said that Paramonova had in effect been second in command until Gerashchenko's resignation. He expected that she would be tougher on inflation than her predecessor, who has been criticized by Western economists for his free-spending policies.


"Tatyana Paramonova is known as a professional, a highly-skilled specialist who watches very closely the implementation of all commitments and agreements signed by the Central Bank," said Illarionov. "Paramonova's attitude toward inflation is not as liberal as the former Central Bank chairman's."


A Western economist said Paramonova's appointment appeared to be good news for economic reformers: "She is basically pro-market," he said.


Central Bank officials, however, did not expect any major policy shifts immediately.


"There will be no drastic moves at first," said a senior bank official.


Fyodorov agreed: "When we know who is going to be the governor full-time then we can see what kind of job they will do."


The appointment took some private bankers by surprise. "There were lots of names we could have expected, but not her. Nobody would have thought of that," said Yury Obolentsev of Mezhekonomsberbank.


"She is the Central Bank accountant," said one banker who declined to be named.


Paramonova, who is married and has a son, graduated from the financial and credit faculty of the Plekhanov Economics Academy, a well-known economic institute, according to a Central Bank statement. She worked in the Soviet State Bank and joined the Russian Central Bank in 1992.


"There are no doubts about the reputation and authority of Tatyana Paramonova," said Sergei Glasyev, chairman of the State Duma's Economic Policy Committee.


Gerashchenko resigned in the wake of last week's "Black Tuesday" ruble crash, after President Boris Yeltsin asked the Duma to fire him. The Russian currency hit a low of 3,926 to the dollar last Tuesday, compared with about 2,600 at the start of the month, but then came back to less than 3,000 per dollar after heavy Central Bank intervention.


Some experts say that the ruble crisis has left the Central Bank in dire straits. According to Russian news reports, the bank has seen its hard currency reserves sink to under $2 billion from about $5 billion at the end of September as a result of heavy intervention on the hard currency market.


Illarionov, however, rejected those figures, saying that the Central Bank is in much better condition than it seems. "It's a total lie," he said. (MT, Reuters)