Sweden’s Anders Borg “has emerged as one of Europe’s most respected finance ministers”, in the view of a Financial Times panel.

The role of being a finance minister completely turned upside-down the day Lehman Brothers collapsed in September last year and world economy suddenly was facing the worst crisis since the second world war. To fight the swelling economic disaster finance ministers had to throw away their usual scripts, improvise and collaborate. They were put on an test that not everybody managed.

According to a Financial Times panel, this year primarily looking at the robustness and stability of Europe’s main economies, Sweden’s finance minister Anders Borg is the fourth best EU finance minister.

“Known for his ponytail and round spectacles, Anders Borg looks more like a middle-age hippy than a member of government”, the British newspaper points out. “But the 41-year-old has emerged as one of Europe’s most respected finance ministers”.

The world has not only turned to Sweden for lessons from its handling of the banking crisis in the early 1990s. Anders Borg has also been a vocal advocate on limits on financial sector pay.

"The bankers are partying like it's 1999, and it's 2009," he told The Swedish Wire and other reporters on his way to the Finance Minister's meeting in Brussels in September, a comment that has echoed ever since.

Anders Borg profile rose further since July when Sweden took on the rotating EU presidency. The FT also said that Anders Borg would play a central role in next year’s general election campaign in Sweden.

The No 1 EU finance minister is France’s Christine Lagarde, who has “become a star among world financial policy-makers”, the FT wrote, pointing out that “the judges loved her performances on the international stage when it came to regulation and the future of banking”.

The judges voted Peer Steinbruck, German finance minister until the recent election, into second place, and Belgian minister Didier Reynders into third place.

In last place came Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan.

Out of the European Union’s 27 economies, some of the smallest were excluded – leaving 19 competition entrants. Non-EU countries such as Norway and Switzerland were also left out.