Mexico Central Bank Chief 'Flees' as Trump Sparks Economy Fears

Mexican Central Bank Governor Agustin Carstens announced on Thursday that he will be leaving his post amid rising doubts about the direction of Mexico’s economy following the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president.

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Carstens, who has headed the institution since 2010 and is a highly respected economist across the world, will will step down in mid-2017. In 2011, along with Christine Lagarde, the 58-year-old economist was one of the two final candidates to become the managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

After leaving the Central Bank, Carstens will take the top job at the Bank for International Settlement, an international financial institution that "serves as a bank for central banks."

The Mexican government immediately came out to say that his resignation will not have implications for the economy nor the country’s battered currency. However, the Mexican peso weakened more than 1 percent on the news that Carstens was leaving.

Carstens, who said that a victory for Trump would hit Mexico like "a hurricane," spearheaded a so-called "contingency plan" for the Mexican economy following the Nov. 8 U.S. election, sidelining participation of the administration of the unpopular President Enrique Peña Nieto in the process.

The plan has not been detailed yet, but official sources said that in the Central Bank's most recent meeting, the board showed major concern over the uncertainty of new economic policies Trump may introduce that could further hammer the peso and the stagnant Mexican economy.

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The Mexican peso plummeted to a record low after Trump's election over the uncertain economic climate in the country, which is fueled by the prospect of the president-elect building a border wall and renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement between Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.

Mexico is Latin America's second largest economy and the U.S.' third largest goods trading partner. Experts have warned that recent devaluation of the Mexican peso will also affect U.S. companies, especially because their products would become much less competitive in Mexico and much of Latin America.