Peter Praet
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Peter Praet (born 20 January 1949 in Herchen near
Eitorf Eitorf is a municipality in the Rhein-Sieg district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the river Sieg, approx. 25 km east of Bonn city. History Early History The area encompassing Eitorf was originally inhabited by the ...
,
North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...
,
Allied-occupied Germany Germany was already de facto occupied by the Allies from the real fall of Nazi Germany in World War II on 8 May 1945 to the establishment of the East Germany on 7 October 1949. The Allies (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and France ...
) is a Belgian economist who served as a member of the
Executive Board of the European Central Bank The Executive Board of the European Central Bank is the organ responsible for implementing monetary policy for the Eurozone in line with the guidelines and decisions taken by the Governing Council of the European Central Bank. The Executive Board ...
from 2011 to 2019 and concurrently as ECB chief economist following his 2012 appointment. Within the ECB, Praet was widely considered to be centrist on
monetary policy Monetary policy is the policy adopted by the monetary authority of a nation to control either the interest rate payable for very short-term borrowing (borrowing by banks from each other to meet their short-term needs) or the money supply, often a ...
with a “dovish” tilt, meaning he was more likely to take growth prospects into account in the conduct of monetary policy than strict inflation “hawks” do.


Early life and education

Praet is half-Belgian and half-German, his father being from Belgium and his mother from Germany. He graduated from Université libre de Bruxelles, with a BA in economics, an MA in economics in 1972, and PhD in economics in 1980.


Career

Praet was chief economist for Fortis Bank. Between 1999 and 2000, he served as chief of staff to Belgian Finance Minister
Didier Reynders Didier Reynders (; born 6 August 1958) is a Belgian politician and a member of the Mouvement Réformateur (MR) serving as European Commissioner for Justice since 2019. He held various positions in public institutions before becoming a member of t ...
. In this capacity, his main task was to lay the ground for Reynders’
Eurogroup The Eurogroup is the recognised collective term for the informal meetings of the finance ministers of the eurozone—those member states of the European Union (EU) which have adopted the euro as their official currency. The group has 19 member ...
presidency in 2001 and oversee the country's most ambitious tax-reform plan in decades. Praet was executive director of the
National Bank of Belgium The National Bank of Belgium (NBB; nl, Nationale Bank van België, french: Banque nationale de Belgique, german: Belgische Nationalbank) has been the central bank of Belgium since 1850. The National Bank of Belgium was established with 100% pr ...
from 2000 to 2011. He was also a member of the
Basel Committee on Banking Supervision The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) is a committee of banking supervisory authorities that was established by the central bank governors of the Group of Ten (G10) countries in 1974. The committee expanded its membership in 2009 a ...
and an alternate member of the
Bank for International Settlements The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is an international financial institution owned by central banks that "fosters international monetary and financial cooperation and serves as a bank for central banks". The BIS carries out its work thr ...
' Global Economy Meeting. At the same time, he was professor of
Monetary Economics Monetary economics is the branch of economics that studies the different competing theories of money: it provides a framework for analyzing money and considers its functions (such as medium of exchange, store of value and unit of account), and it ...
at the
Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management The Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (abbreviated as SBS-EM and also known as simply Solvay) is a school of economics and management and a Faculty of the Université libre de Bruxelles, a French-speaking private research univ ...
.


European Central Bank, 2011–2019

Before his appointment, Praet was nominated several times by the Belgian government to join the ECB Board. In 2004, his candidacy failed when the German, French, Italian and Spanish governments agreed the biggest Eurozone countries should always have a national member on the six-member board, and therefore chose
José Manuel González-Páramo José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacu ...
. In 2010, when Praet was proposed to the bank's vice-presidency, governments agreed that the position should go to a sitting governor of a central bank and not, as Praet then was, a director; as a consequence,
Vítor Constâncio Vítor Manuel Ribeiro Constâncio, GCC, GCIH (born 12 October 1943) is a Portuguese economist and academic who served as Vice President of the European Central Bank from 2010 to 2018. He previously served as Governor of the Bank of Portugal fr ...
was chosen by the
European Council The European Council (informally EUCO) is a collegiate body that defines the overall political direction and priorities of the European Union. It is composed of the heads of state or government of the EU member states, the President of the E ...
to replace
Lucas Papademos Lucas Demetrios Papademos ( el, Λουκάς Παπαδήμος; born 11 October 1947) is a Greek economist and academic who served as 12th Prime Minister of Greece from November 2011 to May 2012, leading a national unity government in the wake ...
as vice-president. In 2011, Praet replaced
Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell (born 11 November 1952 in Kapelln) is an Austrian economist who served as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 2003 to 2011. She previously served as vice-governor of the Oesterreichische Nati ...
; the other candidate for the position had been
Elena Kohútiková Elena may refer to: People * Elena (given name), including a list of people and characters with this name * Joan Ignasi Elena (born 1968), Catalan politician * Francine Elena (born 1986), British poet Geography * Elena (town), a town in Veliko ...
. Praet's appointment as ECB chief economist, which prepares recommendations on interest rate decisions superseded recommendations in favor of French and German counterparts. It was the first time in the bank's then 13-year history that the economics portfolio was given to a non-German. Peter Praet retired in June 2019 after an eight-year run at the ECB.


Other activities

* Bruegel, member of the board of trustees (2004–2011) * Brussels Finance Institute (BFI), member of the academic advisory board (2010–2011) *
European Policy Centre The European Policy Centre (EPC) is a Brussels-based not-for-profit think tank on European Union affairs, founded in 1997. Activities Under the guidance of Herman Van Rompuy, the EPC's Chief Executive is Fabian Zuleeg, a German economist. Its ...
(EPC), member of the board (2004–2007)


References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Praet, Peter 1949 births Belgian economists Living people Executive Board of the European Central Bank members