He served as secretary of finance (1988 – 1994) in the cabinet of Carlos Salinas de Gortari, where he successfully renegotiated foreign debt, gave autonomy to the central bank and promoted a controversial privatization plan.
[1] His great-grandfather was a federal deputy in the early years of the 20th century and his grandfather coordinated the Mexican diplomatic service in the Álvaro Obregón administration.
[2] Before joining the cabinet of President Salinas, Aspe Armella chaired the department of economics at the ITAM; served as the founding president of the National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics (INEGI, 1982 – 1985); worked as Undersecretary of Planning (1985 – 1987) and headed the Budget and Planning Secretariat in the cabinet of Miguel de la Madrid.
[2] He has also authored The Analysis of Household Composition and Economics of Scale in Consumption (1976), L'impresa nell economia aperta in presenza di incertezza (1978) and Financial Policies and the World Capital Market: The Problem of Latin American Countries (1983).
He is the current CEO of Protego, S.A., a consulting company based in Mexico City with offices in Monterrey, and a member of the board of the American International Group (AIG), McGraw-Hill and its subsidiary Standard & Poor's.