Fernando Blanco is an economist specializing in macroeconomics and fiscal policy. He joined the World Bank in 2002 and has worked in the Latin America and Caribbean, Africa, South Asia, and Middle East and North Africa regions in the Macroeconomics, Trade, and Investment Global Practice. Currently, he is the principal economist for Europe and Central Asia at the International Finance Corporation in the World Bank Group. Prior to joining the Bank, he served as an associate researcher for the Institute of Applied Economics Research, a government think-tank in Brazil, and as a professor of Public Economics and International Economics at the Brazilian Institute of Capital Markets and the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. He holds a PhD in Economics from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.