Vice President and Head of the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM) Network, The World Bank

The PREM Network has more than 700 economists and other professionals working on economic policy, poverty reduction, and analytic work for the World Bank’s client countries. He took up his position on May 4, 2009, after serving as the Vice President for Countries at the Inter-American Development Bank since June 2007.

Dr. Canuto provides strategic leadership and direction to Regional PREM units as well as groups working on economic policy formulation in the area of growth and poverty, debt, trade, gender, and public sector management and governance. He is also involved in managing the Bank’s overall interactions with key partner institutions including the IMF, the OECD and regional development banks.

Dr. Canuto was Executive Director at the Board of the World Bank in 2004-2007. He also served in the Brazilian Ministry of Finance, where he was Secretary for International Affairs. He was Professor of Economics at the University of São Paulo and University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil.

He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from University of Campinas and a M.A. from Concordia University in Montreal. He has lectured and written widely on economic growth, financial crisis management, and regional development. His recent published work has dealt with financial crisis and economic growth in Latin America. He has published more than 70 articles in economic journals and books in English, Spanish and has spoken often on development policy and global economic issues.