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Speaker: Carlos Fernández Valdovinos, Governor of the Central Bank of Paraguay
About the Talk: Latin America experienced an average growth of 4.4% between 2004 and 2011, much higher than that observed in the nineties (3%). In large part, this improved performance was the result of a very favorable external situation, reflected in historically high commodity prices and financial conditions that were significantly lax. As a result, the social conditions of the countries improved markedly, reducing poverty rates and inequality in the region. More recently, this benign scenario has been reversed. Some economies that were better prepared were able to weather the "headwinds" with less difficulty, while others experienced a sudden adjustment. Consequently, a slowdown has been observed (in some cases, even a reversal) in the improvement of social indicators. The "golden years" are gone and, yet still policymakers must now develop new instruments to recover lost ground and advance the development process of our states. Clearly, "the solution" cannot and should not be the same for all cases. This seminar seeks to discuss how to face the challenges faced by Latin American countries in the new global context. What lessons we learned from the last crisis and what are the best policies to prepare us for the next one.
About the Speaker:
Carlos Fernández Valdovinos was designated Governor of the Central Bank of Paraguay (BCP) in October 2013 for a five-year period. He graduated from the Universidad Federal de Paraná (Federal University of Paraná – Curitiba, Brazil, 1990) and went on to study in the USA, obtaining a Master’s degree in Economics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 1994. In 1999 he got his PhD degree from the University of Chicago.
He has had a vast pedagogical experience and has taught at both national and international universities: Universidad Nacional de Asunción (National University of Asunción), Universidad Católica “Nuestra Señora de la Asunción” – both Paraguayan; Universidad de San Andrés (Argentina), Georgetown University and the University of Chicago. He has worked on various research projects and has published a number of papers.
Professionally within the Central Bank he has acted as Monetary Programming Chief (1991-1992), Advisor to the Economic Studies Manager (1999-2001) and Economic Studies Manager (2001-2004).
He later moved to the USA to work for the World Bank as Senior Economist (2004-2006). From 2006 until his designation as President of the BCP he worked for the IMF as Senior Economist in the Africa, Europe and Western Hemisphere departments, and from 2011 onwards he was Resident Representative of the IMF for Brazil and Bolivia.
In 2015, 2016 and 2017, Global Finance awarded him Best Central Bank Governor of the Year. In 2017, The Banker (from the Financial Times Group) named him Central Banker of the Year -the Americas. In the same year, 2017, Mr. Fernandez has been awarded as the Central Bank Governor of the Year, being the first Latin American Governor prizewinner by Central Banking.