Alex Costa Sáenz de San Pedro is new Idescat director

The Government has decided this Tuesday, 3 June 2025 to appoint Alex Costa Sáenz de San Pedro as director of the Statistical Institute of Catalonia at the recommendation of the Catalan Minister of Economy and Finance.

Àlex Costa holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Barcelona (1984) where he also completed his undergraduate degree, winning the extraordinary end-of-degree award.

In academia, Costa is a lecturer in Statistics and Econometrics at the University of Barcelona (UB) (1981–2000) and in Applied Economics in the Department of Statistics and Econometrics at the same university (1986). He has also taught on the postgraduate course in Official Statistical Sources at the UPC (2005-2008), the Master's Degree in Official Statistics at the University of Seville (2005-2015) and the Master's Degree in Public Policy at the UPF (2005-2015).

In the professional field, Costa also held the post of Deputy Director of Economic Statistics at the Statistical Institute of Catalonia in its first management team. In 2008, he joined the Spanish National Statistics Institute, first as adviser to the Chair and later as Director General of Coordination and Planning. From 2014 to 2025, he worked at Barcelona City Council’s Municipal Data Office. In 2022, he chaired the High Council on Statistics Committee drafting the National Statistical Plan 2025-2028. From 2020 to May 2025, he was chair of the Catalan Association of Regional Science.

Costa takes over from Xavier Cuadras Morató, who has been at the helm of Idescat for the past six years and is now resuming his academic career at Pompeu Fabra University.