After Óscar Puente's resignation, Carlos Cuerpo moved to the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, having previously served as economy minister. Before entering the cabinet, he built his career in Spain's public administration and European institutions.
Cuerpo took over as Minister of Economy, Trade and Business on 29 December 2023, replacing Nadia Calviño, who left the Government to become president of the European Investment Bank. He had been appointed director general for macroeconomic analysis in February 2020, then went on to lead the Treasury and International Financing Secretariat.
That senior post came after years in economic analysis. Cuerpo passed the competitive examination for the Cuerpo Superior de Técnicos Comerciales y Economistas del Estado in 2008 and began as an economic analyst in the Dirección General de Análisis Macroeconómico y Economía Internacional at the then Ministerio de Economía y Hacienda. La Moncloa's biographical account says his responsibilities included economic analysis and modelling the impact of policy measures.
His work later took him to Brussels as a national expert in the European Commission's Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs. In 2014, he joined the Autoridad Independiente de Responsabilidad Fiscal (AIReF), which assesses budgetary policy and the sustainability of public finances.
Cuerpo was born in Badajoz in 1980, and his academic training began there. He graduated in Economics from the Universidad de Extremadura in 2003. In 2004, he completed a master's degree in Economics at the London School of Economics; in 2017, he earned a doctorate in Economics from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business lists those qualifications in his official profile.
His public responsibilities later extended to the vice-presidency: Cuerpo became first vice-president of the Government on 27 March 2026. His move from senior administration into political office also raises wider questions of accountability for Spanish officials, explored in earlier reporting.
