Mexico has a new federal finance minister after Rogelio Ramírez de la O stepped down due to personal reasons.

President Claudia Sheinbaum announced on Friday that Edgar Amador Zamora, deputy finance minister under Ramírez, would be the new head of the Finance and Public Credit Ministry.

She said that Ramírez — finance minister for the final three years of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s 2018-24 presidency and the first five months of the current government — would now be her economic advisor for international affairs.

“It’s a fundamental task, particularly due to the relationship we have with the United States,” Sheinbaum said in a video message a day after Mexico got a reprieve from tariffs on its exports to the U.S.

She described Ramírez as Mexico’s “best economist.”

Sheinbaum, seated in the National Palace with both Ramírez and Amador, noted that Amador is an economist with degrees from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the College of Mexico (Colegio de México), the latter the alma mater of several recent finance ministers.

“He’s been an adviser and has worked in various national and international financial institutions. … Until a short time ago he was an adviser at the Bank of Mexico,” she said.

“And he’s been with us for a while as deputy finance minister,” Sheinbaum added.

In 2021, Amador, who served as finance minister in Mexico City during the 2012-18 mayorship of Miguel Ángel Mancera, was disqualified from holding public office for three months for alleged irregularities in the management of reconstruction funds after a major earthquake in 2017. That sanction was imposed by the Mexico City government while Sheinbaum was mayor. Amador was not formally accused or convicted of any crime.

Amador: ‘We’re committed to macroeconomic stability’

In brief remarks, Amador first thanked Sheinbaum for the “honor” of serving as finance minister.

He subsequently sent a message to investors and “society” at large.

“We’re committed to the macroeconomic stability established in the fiscal package for 2025 and moving forward,” said Amador, who hails from the northern state of Coahuila.

“We’re committed to financial stability, to the stability of our currency, to macroeconomic stability, with the aim that the economy of the country grows on solid foundations and that the objectives of the fourth transformation under the leadership of President Claudia Sheinbaum are confirmed and met,” he said.

Mexico’s influential Business Coordinating Council said it was confident that Amador’s “experience and vision will contribute to strengthening public finances and generating conditions that promote growth and investment.”

The new finance minister takes on the portfolio after the Mexican economy contracted on a sequential basis for the first time in more than three years in the final quarter of 2024.

Although economic growth is forecast to be weak in 2025, Sheinbaum regularly asserts that the Mexican economy is strong. Her government recently presented an ambitious economic plan whose goals include making Mexico the 10th largest economy in the world, reducing reliance on imports from China and other Asian countries and creating 1.5 million new jobs.

One factor that could hinder the implementation of Plan México — and make Amador’s job particularly challenging — is that the Sheinbaum administration inherited record-high public debt of 17.4 trillion pesos (US $854.6 billion), the think tank México Evalúa reported last month, a figure equivalent to 51.4% of Mexico’s GDP.

With reports from Milenio, Reuters, El Economista, Reforma and Latinus