Agustín Carstens assumed office as minister of finance and public credit of Mexico on December 1, 2006 with the new Administration of President Felipe Calderón.
Prior to taking up his current position he was Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund from August of 2003 to October of 2006.
Previously he was Mexico's deputy secretary of finance. From 1999-2000, Mr. Carstens served as an Executive Director at the IMF (representing Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Spain and Venezuela), after a career at the Banco de México (central bank). He has published articles in collections edited by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, the University of London, OECD, IMF, and World Bank. He has also published articles in Columbia Journal of World Business, American Economic Review, Journal of Asian Economics, Journal of International Finance, Cuadernos Económicos del ICE (Spain), and Gaceta de Economía del ITAM (Mexico).
Carstens has a PhD (1985) and M.A. (1983) in economics from the University of Chicago. He has a B.A. in economics from Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) (1982).