López Obrador nominates Finance Minister to be governor of the Bank of Mexico

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Mexico’s President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, announced on Wednesday that he would propose the current Secretary of Finance and Public Credit, Arturo Herrera, as the next governor of the Bank of Mexico.

“A chance for the good of Mexico: Arturo Herrera will be proposed as governor of the Bank of Mexico and Rogelio Ramírez de la O goes to the SHCP (Ministry of Finance and Public Credit),” said the president in a message on social networks after weeks of rumors of possible cabinet replacements.

This change, which comes after last Sunday’s mid-term elections, is the second at the head of the Treasury in López Obrador’s government after Carlos Urzúa, who resigned in 2019 due to differences with the president.

“Why these changes? Fundamentally because we want, in this second stretch of the Government after the federal elections, to maintain macroeconomic stability and maintain the economic policy that has given us excellent results,” the president said in a video message together with Herrera and Ramírez de la O.

The president highlighted that Herrera, an economist by profession and secretary since 2019, has done “an excellent job in the Treasury portfolio” and thanked him “very much for his collaboration and support.”

“I really appreciate that he has confidence in me in making a nomination for the governorship of the Bank of Mexico,” responded Herrera, who said that the central bank is a fundamental element “for Mexico’s stability,” something that “must be maintained.”

If the Senate ratifies him, Herrera will replace the current governor, Alejandro Díaz de León, nominated by former President Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018) and whose term ends in December this year, at the head of the Bank of Mexico.

Two weeks ago, López Obrador announced that he would not renew Díaz de León’s mandate. He considered a “neoliberal period” technician and assured that he would propose a profile “with a social dimension”.

Herrera, who was also Mexico City’s Finance Secretary when López Obrador governed the capital (2000-2005), assured that he is “very pleased to pass the baton” to Ramírez de la O he has known for two decades.

An advisor to President López Obrador, Rogelio Ramírez de la O is an economic analyst and director of the firm Ecanal and studied economics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the University of Cambridge.

“It is an honor to assume the position and continue with the good work that has been done in this area by those who have preceded me,” Ramírez de la O said in the video.

The next Secretary of Finance said that Mexico is “coming out of a pandemic and a far-reaching global recession, and we must all work together.”

López Obrador remarked that the economic policy carried out so far will be maintained, based on not going into debt, having an austere public administration, and not increasing fuel prices.

He also pointed out that in Sunday’s elections, the ruling National Regeneration Movement (Morena) and its allies obtained a sufficient majority to approve until 2024 the Government’s budgets, which are presented every year by the Ministry of Finance.