Born in Cremona, Carlo Cottarelli is currently the Director of the Italian Public Accounts Monitoring Department of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (free position), he is Visiting Professor during the second semester of the academic year 2017/2018 in Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi.

After graduating in Financial and Bank Sciences in Siena University and earning the Master in Economics in the London School of Economics, Carlo Cottarelli worked from 1981 to 1987 for the Monetary Directorate of the Study Department of the Bank of Italy and from 1987 to 1988 for ENI Study Department. He started his career in the Monetary Fund at the end of 1988, working in the Fiscal Affairs Department, Money and Capital Markets Department, Policy Development and Review Department, and European Department (reaching the position of Vice Director in these two last Departments).

From 2008 to 2013 he has been Director of the Fiscal Affairs Department of the International Monetary Fund. Executive Director in the International Monetary Fund (FMI) for Italy, Albania, Greece , Malta, Portugal and San Marino from November 2014 to October 2017.

In the period from October 2013 to October 2014 he has been Commissioner for the Italian Public Expense Monitoring.

In the International Monetary Fund (FMI), Carlo Cottarelli has been Responsible for the Financial Surveillance and the Adjustment Programs in several advanced, emerging and developing countries, among which Italy, UK, Russia, Turkey, Portugal, Greece, Albania, Croatia, Hungary, Lebanon and Serbia. The Fiscal Affairs Department, every year assists about a hundred countries for the implementation of public finance reforms (taxation policies, income management, public expenditure, state budget policies, fiscal institutions). As Director of Fiscal Affairs Department he has developed and launched the Fiscal Monitor, one of the three flagship papers of FMI (together with the World Economic Outlook, and the Global Financial Stability Report). He published several papers and books about fiscal, monetary and exchange policies, and about institutions for financial policy.