AMLO Taps His Spending Chief to Head Banxico as Inflation Soars
- AMLO taps his spending chief to lead Mexico’s central bank
- President makes U-turn after initially picking Arturo Herrera
The Mexican peso tumbled Wednesday after President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador picked a Finance Ministry official with little monetary policy experience to lead the country’s central bank, fueling concern about possible government interference in Banxico’s independence as inflation hits a 20-year high.
Lopez Obrador nominated Deputy Finance Minister Victoria Rodriguez Ceja to be the first woman to lead Banxico, as the central bank is known, after retracting his June decision to pick former Finance Minister Arturo Herrera for the job. Rodriguez has been Mexico’s spending chief since the president took power in late 2018. Before that, she held several positions related to debt, finances and spending but without any significant grounding in monetary policy.