​Costa Rica: Rodrigo Chaves designated as Finance Minister

CENTRAL AMERICA - In Brief 30 Oct 2019 by Francisco de Paula Gutierrez

Rodrigo Chaves, who was serving as country director of the World Bank Indonesia since August 2003, has been designated today as the new Finance Minister of Costa Rica, to substitute Rocío Aguilar, who resigned last week. Chaves, who holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Ohio State University, has been with the World Bank for the last 20 years, where he also served as Sector Director in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Department in the Latin American and the Caribbean Region. Chaves will assume the post in a crucial moment for the Costa Rican economy, faced with a large and persistent fiscal deficit, slow economic growth and relatively high unemployment. He will be responsible for continuing the implementation of the fiscal reform approved last year. In the short term, he will have to assure the enforcement of the fiscal rule in the 2020 government’s budget and to finish the process to place $1.5 billion worth of bonds in the international market. Moreover, he will have to deal with the remaining actions in the expenditure side to complete the adjustment package equivalent to 3.5% of GDP, which the government proposed last year. That includes a public employment law, as we mentioned in our October report.

Now read on...

Register to sample a report

Register