(Bloomberg) -- Brazilian economist Roberto Campos Neto will take the reins of the central bank under incoming President Jair Bolsonaro with the benchmark rate at a record low and inflation close to target.

Campos Neto, Treasury director for the Americas at Banco Santander, will replace Ilan Goldfajn, according to a text message from incoming Finance Minister Paulo Guedes. Goldfajn, a former chief economist at Itau, has run the central bank since 2016 and oversaw an easing cycle that saw the benchmark rate tumble to 6.5 percent from 14.25 percent while getting consumer prices under control.

While Goldfajn’s continuation at Banco Central do Brasil had been in doubt since Bolsonaro swept to a resounding second round presidential election victory on Oct. 28, Campos Neto’s name had been floated in local media and by transition officials as one of the main candidates. Guedes also said that Mansueto Almeida will remain as Treasury Secretary.

“Fantastic,” Jan Dehn, the London-based head of research at Ashmore Group, which oversees $76 billion, wrote in a message. “This is very good news. He’s a markets man who understands how the economy and markets work. It’s very positive.”

Bolsonaro, a former Army captain and lawmaker for nearly 30 years, has surrounded himself with liberal-minded economists to lead his government with plans to slash spending, privatize state-run companies and simplify the nation’s tax structure.

Campos Neto, 49, has an economy degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and has been at Santander’s local unit for most of the past 18 years, according to the bank’s press department. He previously worked at Banco Bozano Simonsen as a derivatives and rates trader and on the international fixed income desk.

A debate has been rekindled in recent weeks about whether the new government would look to potentially sell some of the nation’s $381 billion of foreign currency reserves held at the central bank in order to reduce the South American country’s debt load.

While local Brazilian markets were closed Thursday for a holiday, the iShares MSCI Brazil ETF rose 2.5 percent.

--With assistance from Ben Bartenstein and Gerson Freitas Jr..

To contact the reporter on this story: Rachel Gamarski in in Brasilia at rgamarski@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Cancel at dcancel@bloomberg.net

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