Santiago Peña Palacios is the Paraguayan Minister of Finance. Peña has a graduate degree in Economics from the Catholic University of Asunción (2001) and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Columbia University, New York. He taught Economic Theory at the Catholic University of Asunción. His professional career began as an analyst with the Industrial Development Fund in 1999. He then served as an economist at the Central Bank of Paraguay from 2000 until 2009. He was an economist at the IMF focusing on West Africa until 2012. Upon his return to Paraguay he was named a member of the Board of Directors the Central Bank and led the team, which prepared the Financial Inclusion Strategy, which was launched in December 2014. In January 2015, he was appointed Minister of Hacienda. At 36, he is one of the region’s youngest Minister of Finance.
