Mostafa Askari
Chief Economist
As a trusted leader in Canadian economics and public finance, Mostafa Askari brings a wealth of experience in economic and fiscal forecasting, budget analysis, model building and program costing to IFSD.
In 2019, Mostafa joined IFSD following an extensive career that saw him hold key fiscal, analytical and managerial positions in the Department of Finance as the Senior Chief of Economic Analysis, Chief of Economic Forecast, Chief of International Policy Analysis, and Chief of Model Development, and at Health Canada as the Director General of the Applied Research and Analysis Directorate. His final ten years working in government were spent alongside his colleagues Kevin Page and Sahir Khan helping to establish Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) as the Assistant PBO and then the Deputy PBO.
Mostafa earned his PhD from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. He has held appointments as a senior advisor to Canada’s Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and as an assistant professor of economics at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario.
A frequent media contributor on economic issues, Mostafa is regularly sought out for his analysis on CTV News, CBC News and Global TV and in publications such as the Canadian Tax Journal, Policy Magazine, OECD Journal on Budgeting, and the Journal of Econometrics.