The president of the Central Bank of Uruguay (BCU), Diego Labat, will leave his post in the directory to make way for the current vice president, Washington Ribeiro, who will assume his new role starting this Friday.
The departure would be linked to the electoral campaign, since Labat would focus on supporting the presidential candidacy of Alvaro Delgado for him National Party. In this regard, sources close to the former Secretary of the Presidency They told him Ambit that “it is likely” that he will join the team.
It is worth remembering that since February there have been rumors that he was going to head Delgado’s economic team. In fact, the economist was repeatedly mentioned among the then pre-candidate’s thanks during the events prior to the internal elections, fueling the possibility that he could become the next Minister of Economy and Finance In the event that the white candidate wins the elections elections 2024.
Labat’s career at the Central Bank of Uruguay
Labat assumed the role of president of the BCU on March 20, 2020 and since then has promoted a restrictive monetary policy, taking interest rates to a maximum of 11.5% with the focus on lowering the inflation and in September of that year, promoting the target range that currently governs between 3 and 6%, which led to the CPI being within the objective for 13 months.
In fact, earlier this Thursday leading the opening of the XXXIX Annual Conference on Economics, Labat stressed that inflation “is where we wanted it to be” and valued that the BCU “has not intervened in the economy for almost three years” exchange rate”, beyond the criticism received for the exchange rate lag.
“This year the two central objectives of the Central Bank were simultaneously achieved: financial stability and the price stability”, the economist stressed.
Who is Washington Ribeiro?
The appointed president of the BCU Washington Ribeiro Torrado He is 52 years old and has a degree in Economics, a graduate of the University of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay (Udelar) in 1999. Among his main milestones within the institution was leading policies linked to the improvement of the payment system.
On this point, he recently highlighted the advances in multi-acquiring, the digitalization of checks, the masking of bank accounts, the 24 hour instant interbank transfers and the use of the cell phone number as an alias. Looking ahead, the next step is payments with QR code in stores.
Ribeiro has served as Vice President of the Board since 2020 and until today, having previously had an important career as Director of the BCU between 2010 and 2020.
In turn, the new president of the monetary authority worked as independent consultor in the preparation of national and regional economic situation reports, as well as in the preparation and evaluation of investment projects.
Source: Ambito
