Peru ex-govt official Carlos Oliva to be finance minister - source

LIMA (Reuters) - Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra will swear in Carlos Oliva, a former deputy finance minister, as the new finance minister in a ceremony later on Thursday, a government source said.

The appointment follows the resignation of outgoing finance minister David Tuesta after Vizcarra's government struck a deal with truck and bus drivers to avert a protest against new tax hikes on diesel and other fuels.

Oliva will be the fourth finance minister to take office in the past year in Peru, one of the region's most stable economies and the world's No. 2 copper producer.

He will be tasked with shoring up tax revenues to reduce a growing fiscal deficit and restoring business confidence following months of political uncertainty that led the former president to resign in a graft scandal in March.

Oliva, who earned a masters in economics from Georgetown University, was a deputy finance minister during the government of former president Ollanta Humala. He is currently a private consultant and the director of the public administration masters program at Lima's Pacific University.

He is widely expected to maintain Peru's decades-old free-market economic model.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because an official announcement had not been made, said Vizcarra was scheduled to swear Oliva in as minister at 16:00 (21:00 GMT).