Aniket Pujari(Bloomberg) — Ecuador central bank chief Guillermo Avellán announced his resignation Tuesday, saying he would leave the job more than a year before the end of his term to pursue other professional opportunities.
“After four and a half years at the central bank, the time has come to take on new professional challenges with the same commitment and responsibility,” Avellán, a 39-year-old economist close to former President Guillermo Lasso, said in a social media post.
The central bank accepted his resignation on Nov. 27, it said in a separate statement several hours later.
Avellán still had 1.5 years left of a six-year term that was introduced when Ecuador restored the bank’s independence in 2021 under Lasso, with support from the International Monetary Fund.
The economist from Guayaquil “distinguished himself through his leadership in initiatives aimed at strengthening the institutional framework” of the payments authority, according to the statement. On Nov. 20, he had unveiled a new monthly economic activity indicator.
He will be replaced by career central banker Juan Ponce, who has worked at the institution since 1988, on an interim basis while the new Financial and Monetary Regulation Board picks a permanent successor. Members of the regulatory body were sworn in last September after it was established under a new law that merged two previous boards into a single entity.
Amid a severe financial crisis, Ecuador adopted the US dollar in 2000, limiting the central bank’s role to the issuance of coins worth less than 50 cents, ensuring international and domestic payments, and the publication of some macroeconomic data.
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