President
Cristina Herrero was appointed President of the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF), following the deliberation of the Council of Ministers, under Royal Decree 439/2020, of March 3rd, enjoying the unanimous support of all the parliamentary groups. She took on the interim presidency of the institution on January 13th, 2020. Cristina has formed part of the institution’s management team since it was founded. In 2014, she held the position of Director of the Budget Analysis Division, thus becoming the head of one of the main areas of the institution that guarantees budgetary stability and the sustainability of public finances.
She began her career at the General Intervention Board of the State Administration (IGAE), where she was Departmental Head of the Sub-Directorate-General of Analysis and Economic Accounts of the Public Sector from 1993 to 2000, and then as Coordinator of the Preparation of the National Accounts of the General Government from 2000 to 2005. During this time, she was responsible for relations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) within the framework of the agreement on the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS).
Between November 2005 and March 2014, she held the position of Subdirector-General of Budgetary Analysis and Institutional Organisation of the Regional Public Sector of the General Secretariat of Regional and Local Coordination, performing supervisory and monitoring functions of the Autonomous Regions in the field of budgetary stability and financial sustainability, along with the processes to reorganise the regional public sector and financing mechanisms enabled by the State for payments to suppliers.
In October 2022, she was awarded the Grand Cross for Merit in Service to the Economy, a prize awarded by the General Council of Economists that recognises her professional career and outstanding technical profile, along with her work carried out as President of AIReF. In November of the same year, the Association of Economic Information Journalists granted her the Tintero Award for the provision of her informative work. In March 2023, she received the Economic and Social Relevance Prize from the Illustrious Official School of Economists of Alicante for her contribution to the economic development of Spain and its Autonomous Regions. Finally, in November 2023, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her long, ethical, and successful career in her profession from the Institute of Economic Studies.
Cristina holds a bachelor’s degree in Economic and Business Science from the Complutense University of Madrid. She is an active civil servant at the High Service of State Comptrollers and Auditors and a civil servant on leave of absence at the High Service of State Tax Inspectors. She has taken part in various working groups, including the Calculation of Fiscal Balances, the Analysis of Health Spending, the Technical Committee of the Special Commission to Improve Dependency and the Working Group of the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council.