Carstens's Challenges

Pablo López Sarabia, an economics professor from the illustrious Tec de Monterrey (State of Mexico campus), on some of the less-speculated-upon challenges facing Guillermo Ortiz's successor:

The new governor of the Bank of Mexico's other challenges will be to deepen transparency and accountability in the Government Conference, making public the minutes of each of their meetings, with the goal of investors and analysts having greater tools related to the monetary policy strategies that will be implemented. The push toward competition and the reduction of commissions charged by the banking sector is no small task, with the spread between the active (credit) and passive (savings) interest rates continues to be among the largest in the world, coming to levels of about 4,000 basis points.

The reduction in the rating of Mexico's sovereign debt and the inflationary pressures that the 2010 fiscal package will cause, thanks to the IVA and telecom tax increases, as well as the rises in the price of gasoline, electricity, and propane will test the new Banxico governor's ability to move interest rates in the direction that guarantees the stability of the peso with full autonomy, without compromising the economic recovery and the level of employment desired by the president and above all society.