César Arias is director in the Latin American Sovereigns Group at Fitch Ratings since May 2011. He is the lead analyst for Central American sovereigns and frontier markets, including Bolivia, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, and Suriname. Arias speaks regularly to investors and the media about macroeconomic policies and fixed income markets in Latin America. He worked as a research officer in the Monetary and Capital Markets Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, D.C. from 2008 to 2011. At the IMF, he conducted a stress test analysis of the Chinese commercial banks, supported technical assistance missions and the drafting of working papers on debt management and capital markets development. Previously, Arias served for five years as a specialist in the Secretariat for Political Affairs at the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C., where he monitored ten presidential and legislative elections in Latin America, and provided technical assistance on political party and campaign financing. Arias holds a master’s in public administration from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and a bachelor’s in government and international relations from the Externado University in Colombia.