Profile: Carlos Montoro

Position: Senior Economist, Representative Office for the Americas

I started my career at the Central Reserve Bank of Peru and worked there for 10 years, excluding a five-year stint doing a doctorate at the London School of Economics. Both my work at the central bank and my doctoral research have focused on monetary policy and models. Before joining the BIS, I worked at the central bank's research division, and also headed up the macroeconomic modelling unit that provides the economic forecasts for policy analysis.

When offered the chance to join the BIS, I saw it as an excellent chance to diversify my experience. And, as an economist in the Americas Office, I was not disappointed. As we're a small team, we get involved in a good many different activities. My main duties are policy analysis and economic research, focused naturally on the region, and I also maintain relationships with the region's central banks. With frequent opportunities to travel, I'm building up quite an extensive network of contacts across the region.

The Representative Office is located in Mexico City. For me, that is a good compromise between global and local. As I grew up in Lima, the culture, food, language are reasonably familiar. There are plenty of things for the family to do. And, as I'm almost in the same time zone as Lima, I could get there and back in a day if necessary.

Meanwhile, telephone and video conferences, combined with regular visits, keep me in close touch with Basel. At times, the seven-hour time difference can be an advantage, allowing me to pick up a project from a Basel-based colleague and keep working on it through the European night-time hours.

There's also the matter of perspective. I've exchanged a largely national focus for a global one. And, while my previous job was mainly about monetary policy, a great deal of my work now concerns financial stability. This is an excellent opportunity to increase my understanding of how these two topics interrelate. The learning curve continues to be steep, but that's all to the good.