Pending Mexican central bank post to be decided soon, president says

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico will in the next few days resolve the pending designation of a board member for the Mexican central bank, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday, as deputy governor Gerardo Esquivel’s mandate is set to expire at the end of the year.

“There is a proposal from the finance ministry but it still hasn’t been presented, we still have a few days,” Lopez Obrador told reporters at a regular government news conference.

The president did not reveal whom the ministry was considering. There has been speculation about a number of finance officials being in the running for the post.

Esquivel, whom Lopez Obrador in 2018 nominated to serve out the remainder of another board member’s term at the Bank of Mexico, has clashed publicly with the president at times.

Mexico nominated Esquivel to head the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in November. The job ended up going to former Brazilian central banker Ilan Goldfajn.

(Reporting by Dave Graham; Writing by Kylie Madry; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)