Mexico’s central bank deputy governor Gerardo Esquivel has received a fresh round of government job offers as pressure mounts to replace him ahead of his term expiring Dec. 31, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Esquivel declined offers that were made by the Finance Ministry last week for different positions in the administration, the people said, requesting anonymity as the discussions aren’t public. Even so, he is likely to be replaced as President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador seeks a successor more aligned with his political vision and the agenda of Banxico governor Victoria Rodriguez Ceja, one of the people said.
Spokespeople for the Finance Ministry and the central bank declined to comment.
AMLO, as the president is known, roiled markets last year by appointing Rodriguez to head the central bank after unexpectedly withdrawing his nomination of former Finance Minister Arturo Herrera to the job. At the time, the president said he had decided to promote a woman who had been central to carrying out his austerity plans in her previous government role.
Read More: Mexican Central Bank Watchers Consider Replacements for Esquivel
The president said in November he would consider alternative roles for Esquivel, who responded by saying he wouldn’t accept any appointment other than to the central bank. The board member had been in the running to head the Inter-American Development Bank, but lost to the Brazilian candidate in a multi-country vote.
Esquivel was an economic adviser to AMLO during his 2018 election campaign. But relations soured last year as the president called the Harvard-educated economist an “ultra-technocrat” for talking down his plan to pay off debt using the International Monetary Fund’s special drawing rights.
Esquivel has consistently been the board’s most dovish member, voting in November to slow the pace of interest rate hikes while the other four decided to match the hike of the Federal Reserve.
Banxico only slowed the pace in December, still in lockstep with the Fed, taking its key interest rate to a record 10.5% while pledging another increase in February. Economists polled by Citibanamex expect a quarter-point hike at the next meeting.
Source: El Financiero
