Searcher
Alfonso Ugarte
Alfonso Ugarte
Principal Economist
Madrid

Alfonso Ugarte is a Principal Economist in the Global Scenarios Unit of BBVA Research. He has previously worked in the Cross-Country Emerging Markets, Global Trends and Financial System Units in the same department.


His current responsibilities include the development, calibration and updating of several econometric models that are used as inputs by the other departments of BBVA, with a special focus on Country-Risk issues and on cross-country, panel-data analysis. He also provides support in the analysis of financial systems and financial markets in emerging and developing markets.


He has previously held an Adjunct-Professor position in Pompeu Fabra University, where he has taught Econometrics and Corporate Finance, and several other courses as a Teaching Assistant.


He holds a PhD in Economics and Management (Summa Cum Laude) from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona and a Master of Science from the same University. He obtained his bachelor degree in Economics from Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia.

Latest publications

The COVID pandemic coincided with a surge in housing prices in several countries, especially some of the richest, despite the fact that at the same time there was an exceptional slump in economic activity that would normally have led to a sharp decline in prices.
Agency’s ratings have remained stable or changes have been positive in Advanced Economies (AE), despite the negative impact of the war in Ukraine and the monetary policy tightening. On the contrary, rating changes have been mostly negative for Emerging Economies (EE), although mainly due to idiosyncratic factors.
The Current Account of the BoP includes the trade balance and the net dividend and interest payments abroad. A current account deficit implies that the country is a net debtor to the rest of the world. An econometric model is used to estimate the structural Current Account balance of Argentina and its long-term determinants