Nicolás Eyzaguirre Guzmán (born 3 January 1953 in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...

) is a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...

, and the former Minister of Education of his country. Previously, he was Chile's Minister of Finance between 2000 and 2006. He is the son of architect Joaquín Eyzaguirre and actress

Delfina Guzmán Delfina Guzmán Correa (born 7 April 1928) is a Chilean actress. She has appeared in more than 30 films and television shows since 1968. She starred in the 1968 Raúl Ruiz film '' Three Sad Tigers''. She is the daughter of Florencio Guzmán La ...

Early life and studies

Eyzaguirre received his secondary education at the elite Colegio Verbo Divino private school. A music enthusiast, at the age of 15 he was admitted to the

University of Chile The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

Conservatory to study classical guitar, being lured by the

Nueva canción Nueva canción (European , ; 'new song') is a left-wing social movement and musical genre in Latin America and the Iberian peninsula, characterized by folk-inspired styles and socially committed lyrics. ''Nueva canción'' is widely recognized to ...

movement. With his brother, Joaquín, he was part was of the folk group ''Aquelarre'', playing titles such as, ''El cautivo de Tiltil'' and ''Valparaíso''. Eyzaguirre began his career in

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

as a member of the

Christian Democrat Party __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...

, and then migrated to the Christian Left Party and then to the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

, where he stayed until his departure to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. He graduated as a Commercial Engineer with a mention in economics at the

University of Chile The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

, and obtained his master's degree in economics from the same university, specializing in economic development.

Career

Rising as scholar

Later, he traveled to the United States to obtain a doctorate in macroeconomics and international trade from the

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, which he never completed. Eyzaguirre changed his view of economics during his time at Harvard. He later admitted to having been mistaken in his Communist ideology, and that adopting the principles of the free market was more sound and rational. Back in Chile, Eyzaguirre became acquainted with and befriended

Ricardo Lagos Ricardo Froilán Lagos Escobar (; born 2 March 1938) is a Chilean lawyer, economist and social-democratic politician who served as president of Chile from 2000 to 2006. During the 1980s he was a well-known opponent of the Chilean military dic ...

, with whom he later joined the Party for Democracy, his current party affiliation. Between 1984 and 1985, he worked as an international consultant and adviser to the International Monetary Fund. Later, between 1985 and 1990, he worked as an expert in Monetary and Financial Policy for Latin America at CEPAL. After the return of democracy, he performed senior roles at the Central Bank of Chile between 1990 and 1997, occupying the positions of Director of Research and Chief Economist.

Political career

On 11 March 2000, he took the oath as Minister of Finance in the government of

. The Lagos government's policy was to perpetuate and perfect Chile's free market economy by drawing lessons for the Asian crisis, which had left Chile with persistently high unemployment and low growth. It balanced the fiscal accounts and implemented a fiscal rule based on the structural balance, which strengthened the fiscal position and contributed to inflation reaching historical lows. The increased macroeconomic stability fostered a return to better economic performance, with growth reaching 6% by 2004. Eyzaguirre's six-year term makes him the longest-serving Minister of Finance in the history of Chile. Under his tenure the state owned mining company,

Codelco Codelco (''Corporación Nacional'' ''del'' ''Cobre de Chile'' or, in English, the National Copper Corporation of Chile) is a Chilean state-owned copper mining company. It was formed in 1976 from foreign-owned copper companies that were nationalise ...

, closed copper forward trades with the Chinese government. Those transactions generated losses of almost US$5.0 bn for the Chilean government. The internal revenue service of

(SII) questioned de operations because copper was sold at an average of usd1,16 per pound, while in the London Exchange was trading at US$3,87.Mostrador Mercados (Santiago), june 12th, 2014
/ref>
/ref>
/ref>Chamber of Deputies Investigation Report, November 10th, 2014
/ref>

Views on economics and political positions

The concept of extractivism has been criticized by Eyzaguirre, who cites the mining sector of Australia as a successful example of a "deep and sophisticated

value chain A value chain is a progression of activities that a firm operating in a specific industry performs in order to deliver a valuable product (i.e., good and/or service) to the end customer. The concept comes through business management and was fir ...

", with high human capital, self-produced machinery and associated top-tier scientific research. For the case of

Eyzaguirre argue that rentierism and not extractivism should be concept of concern. Eyzaguirre supported the proposed new political constitution in the

2022 Chilean national plebiscite The 2022 Chilean national plebiscite was held on 4 September 2022, in order to determine whether the public agreed with the text of a new Political Constitution of the Republic drawn up by the Constitutional Convention. It was commonly referre ...

References

External links

*
Profile
on the Ministry of Education of Chile website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Eyzaguirre, Nicolas 1953 births Living people Politicians from Santiago Chilean people of Basque descent Christian Democratic Party (Chile) politicians Christian Left (Chile) politicians Communist Party of Chile politicians Party for Democracy (Chile) politicians Chilean former marxists Ministers of finance of Chile 20th-century Chilean economists Colegio del Verbo Divino alumni Candidates for President of Chile Chilean Ministers of Education Chilean Ministers Secretary General of the Presidency 21st-century Chilean economists