The President-elect Iván Duque (Centro Democrático-current opposition) announced today after a meeting with the Central Bank’s board that Alberto Carrasquilla will be his finance minister. Duque is expected to announce the rest of his cabinet next week. Duque will take office 7th August this year, after obtaining 54% of the votes in the second round of the presidential elections 17th June.

Duque stated that this designation “is a very good signal for economic policy and a very good signal for the international markets”.

Carrasquilla holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Illinois and held numerous positions in the civil service. He has served as technical manager at the Banco de la República (1993-1997), research economist at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) (1997-1999) as well as economic advisor at the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic (1999-2000). He has also been vice-minister (2002-2003) and minister (2003-2007) of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit under the administration of President Álvaro Uribe (Centro Democrático).

In addition, he led the group of advisers to the president-elect in the recent elections and is at the head of the transition process between the new and the outgoing administrations.