Mexico’s central bank chief, Agustin Carstens, said on Wednesday the country should accumulate more international reserves to protect it from future volatility in the foreign exchange market.

Carstens said Mexico’s economy was recovering better than policy makers had expected but he was concerned the peso currency could take a hit when the U.S. Federal Reserve eventually starts raising interest rates.

Carstens said now was a good time for the bank to buy dollars, and higher reserves could allow Mexico to gradually extricate itself from a line of credit with the International Monetary Fund.

“We want to take advantage of these good moments in financial markets for accumulating reserves,” Agustin Carstens said.

• He said Mexico’s economy will grow between 3.2 percent and 4.2 percent in 2010, above the bank’s previous forecast for growth between 2.5 percent and 3.5 percent.