Mário Henrique Simonsen (19 February 1935 – 9 February 1997) was a Brazilian economist, who served as Brazil's finance minister from 1974 to 1979.
Simonsen was appointed Brazil's finance minister by President
Ernesto Geisel
Ernesto Beckmann Geisel (, ; 3 August 1907 – 12 September 1996) was a Brazilian Army officer and politician, who served as the 29th president of Brazil from 1974 to 1979, during the Brazilian military dictatorship.
Born to German Lutheran ...
with instructions to reduce the country's runaway inflation rate.
Despite Simonsen's efforts, the official inflation rate had risen to 40% ''per annum'' in 1979 and he was shifted to Planning Minister.
He was succeeded by
Antonio Delfim Netto, with whom he had an uneasy relationship due to the latter's inclination to increase borrowing, and hence inflation.
Simonsen resigned from Cabinet in 1980 and became a director of Citicorp, a position he held until 1995 when he was forced by ill-health to retire. He was a chronic heavy smoker and suffered from
emphysema
Emphysema is any air-filled enlargement in the body's tissues. Most commonly emphysema refers to the permanent enlargement of air spaces (alveoli) in the lungs, and is also known as pulmonary emphysema.
Emphysema is a lower respiratory tract di ...
.
Other interests
Simonsen was an excellent
baritone
A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...
and an opera aficionado.
Family
He was married to
Iluska Pereira da Cunha Simonsen. Thy had two sons and a daughter.
See also
*
Portuguese Wikipedia entry
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Simonsen, Mario Henrique
Brazilian economists
1935 births
1997 deaths