Washington---Bank of Mexico Governor Agustin Carstens was named Friday to be the new head of the powerful policy advisory committee of the International Monetary Fund.
The IMF said Carstens would replace Singapore's Tharman Shanmugaratnam as the chairman of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) for a three-year term beginning March 23.
A veteran of top positions at both the IMF and the Mexican central bank, Carstens, 56, vied with Christine Lagarde and other candidates for the job of IMF managing director in 2011.
Lagarde won the contest for the position, which has been held by a European since the Fund's founding.
Carstens has a doctorate degree in economics from the University of Chicago. He was deputy managing director of the IMF from 2003 to 2006, then served as Mexican finance minister until being named governor of the Bank of Mexico in 2010.
The 24-member IMFC comprises top central bankers and finance ministers from around the world, meeting twice a year to set the policy directions for the world's crisis lender.
AFP
