Mário José Gomes de Freitas Centeno (born 9 December 1966) is a Portuguese economist, university professor, and politician. From 2015 to 2020, he was

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

of Portugal in the government cabinet of Prime Minister António Costa of the Portuguese Socialist Party (PS). He was the president of the

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 membe ...

and chairman of the board of Governors of the

European Stability Mechanism The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) is an intergovernmental organization located in Luxembourg City, which operates under public international law for all eurozone member states having ratified a special ESM intergovernmental treaty. It was ...

from 2018 to 2020. Previously, he was a

board member A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

economist of the

Bank of Portugal The Banco de Portugal (English: Bank of Portugal) is the central bank of the Portuguese Republic. The bank was founded by royal charter in 1846, during the reign of Queen Maria II of Portugal, by a merger of the '' Banco de Lisboa'' (Bank of Lis ...

. On 9 June 2020, he announced his resignation from the Ministry of Finance, effective 15 June. On 16 July 2020, the

Council of Ministers A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...

approved Centeno's nomination for the post of Governor of the

, put forward by his successor as Finance minister,

João Leão João Rodrigo Reis Carvalho Leão (born 15 February 1974) is a Portuguese economist, university professor, and politician. He served as Minister of Finance in the government of Prime Minister António Costa of Portugal, sworn in on 15 June 2020 ...

. Centeno is the author or co-author of several scientific publications, books and book chapters related to his areas of interest, such as labour economics,

econometrics Econometrics is the application of statistical methods to economic data in order to give empirical content to economic relationships. M. Hashem Pesaran (1987). "Econometrics," '' The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 2, p. 8 p. 8 ...

, microeconomics and contract theory.

Education

Centeno, a native from

Algarve The Algarve (, , ; from ) is the southernmost NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities ( ''concelhos'' or ''municípios'' in Portuguese). The region has it ...

region in southern mainland Portugal, was born in Olhão but was raised until his 15th anniversary in

Vila Real de Santo António Vila Real de Santo António (, often run together as ) is a city, civil parish, and municipality in the Algarve, Portugal. The population in 2011 was 19,156, in an area of 61.25 km2. It is one of the few municipalities in Portugal without ter ...

. He studied economics at

University of Lisbon The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; pt, Universidade de Lisboa, ) is a public research university in Lisbon, and the largest university in Portugal. It was founded in 2013, from the merger of two previous public universities located in Lisbon, th ...

, faculty of Economics and Business Management (ISEG-ULISBOA), graduating in 1990. He earned a master's degree in

applied mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a combination of mathemati ...

from ISEG-ULISBOA in 1993, a master's degree in economics from

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 ...

that he completed in 1998, and he was awarded a PhD in economics by Harvard University in 2000. Lawrence Katz was his adviser.

Early career

An expert on labour market issues, Centeno joined the Banco de Portugal (Central Bank of Portugal) in 2000, where he worked as an economist until 2004. He was member of the Executive Committee of European Association of Labor Economists (EALE) from 2003 to 2005. From 2004 to 2013 he was assistant director of the Central Bank Economics’ Department. He was member of the Economic Policy Committee of the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

between 2004 and 2013. He also directed the Macroeconomics Statistics Development's work group in the Superior Statistics Council (CSE) between 2007 and 2013.Board of Governors: Mário Centeno

. From 2014, Centeno was Professor at ISEG,

, and worked as a consultant to the Central Bank of Portugal. In addition, he served as the main economic policy advisor to Socialist leader António Costa, coordinating the Socialist economic programme before the 2015 legislative elections.

Political career

Minister of Finance

After taking office as Finance Minister in 2015, Centeno enacted policies which reversed some austerity policies from the Portuguese government-debt crisis (2010–2014). The new post-crisis situation allowed him to authorize a public pensions' rise and improved wage payment to civil servants as a way to "increase households’ disposable income", while insisting that European Union's budget rules must be respected. Early in his tenure, he urged the EU to acknowledge the scale of Portugal's economic turnround as the country headed towards its lowest fiscal deficit in more than 40 years and to remove Portugal from the group of countries subject to penalties for breaking the

European Fiscal Compact The Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union; also referred to as TSCG, or more plainly the Fiscal Stability Treaty is an intergovernmental treaty introduced as a new stricter version of the Stability ...

. By the end of 2017, national opinion polls placed Centeno as the best-known and best-liked minister. In November 2017, Centeno submitted his formal application for succeeding

Jeroen Dijsselbloem Jeroen René Victor Anton Dijsselbloem (; born 29 March 1966) is a Dutch politician and economist serving as Mayor of Eindhoven since 13 September 2022, succeeding John Jorritsma (VVD). A member of the Labour Party (PvdA), he has also been Ch ...

as the next chairman of the

. On 4 December 2017, he was elected President of the

, incumbent from 13 January 2018. Reportedly favored by an informal agreement between French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Opp ...

, he defeated Pierre Gramegna of

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

, Peter Kažimír of

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

and Dana Reizniece-Ozola of Latvia. His election carried particular symbolic weight because he is from one of the countries hardest hit by the debt crisis. He would serve a -year term, which is renewable. On 21 December 2017, he was appointed as chairman of the board of Governors of the

, effective from 13 January 2018. Following the resignation of

Christine Lagarde Christine Madeleine Odette Lagarde (; née Lallouette, ; born 1 January 1956) is a French politician and lawyer who has been serving as President of the European Central Bank since 2019. She previously served as the 11th managing director of the ...

as managing director of the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster glo ...

(IMF) in 2019, Centeno was one of the candidates considered by European governments as potential successor; he withdrew his candidacy shortly after and the post went to

Kristalina Georgieva Kristalina Ivanova Georgieva-Kinova ( bg, Кристалина Иванова Георгиева-Кинова; ; born 13 August 1953) is a Bulgarian economist serving as managing director of the International Monetary Fund since 2019. She was t ...

instead. Completely unknown to the public at the time he entered government as minister, Centeno had a reputation for

economic liberalism Economic liberalism is a political and economic ideology that supports a market economy based on individualism and private property in the means of production. Adam Smith is considered one of the primary initial writers on economic liberali ...

in international academic circles because of his positions and research work in favour of greater labor market flexibility. However, during is tenure as Portuguese minister of finance (2015-2020), decades-long rigidity and inefficiency issues of the Portuguese labor market remained an unresolved problem hampering the Portuguese economy while the deepening of economic liberal policies in accordance with his positions and academic theories weren't put in place in a country persistently criticized by institutions and organizations like the

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate e ...

, the IMF and the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

for its anti-market, labor movement-inspired labor laws and rules which promote

overstaffing In Keynesian economics, underemployment equilibrium is a situation with a persistent shortfall relative to full employment and potential output so that unemployment is higher than at the NAIRU or the natural rate of unemployment, "natural" rate of ...

and the misallocation of factors of production in general. In early 2020, the Parliament of Portugal followed Centeno's proposal and approved the country's first budget with a surplus in almost half a century in spite of the number of civil servants has increased for a sixth straight year. But an increasing deterioration of public services including in health, education and transportation infrastructure due to a lack of funding and

government spending Government spending or expenditure includes all government consumption, investment, and transfer payments. In national income accounting, the acquisition by governments of goods and services for current use, to directly satisfy the individual o ...

was perceptible while the country continued to fall behind in

purchasing power Purchasing power is the amount of goods and services that can be purchased with a unit of currency. For example, if one had taken one unit of currency to a store in the 1950s, it would have been possible to buy a greater number of items than would ...

and

productivity Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proces ...

in the context of the European Union, a feature that was associated with the persistent misallocation of capital, labor and skills. During Centeno's tenure as minister a record high

tax burden In economics, tax incidence or tax burden is the effect of a particular tax on the distribution of economic welfare. Economists distinguish between the entities who ultimately bear the tax burden and those on whom tax is initially imposed. The tax ...

was reached in Portugal.

Controversy

In early 2018, Centeno was being investigated for allegedly accepting

S.L. Benfica Sport Lisboa e Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional association football, football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football league system, Portuguese footba ...

tickets in exchange for a favourable tax treatment for a real-estate company owned by the son of Benfica president

Luís Filipe Vieira Luís Filipe Ferreira Vieira (born 22 June 1949) is a Portuguese real estate businessman who was the 33rd president of sports club S.L. Benfica, from October 2003 to July 2021. He was also president of the club's SAD board of directors until ...

.Paul Ames,
Police search offices of Eurogroup President Mário Centeno
, ''

Politico Europe ''Politico Europe'' (stylized as ''POLITICO Europe'') is the European edition of the German-owned news organization ''Politico'' reporting on political affairs of the European Union. Its headquarters are located in Brussels with additional offices ...

'', 27 January 2018. Updated 28 January 2018. Retrieved 28 January 2018.Niels Posthumus,
Politie doet inval bij Portugese ministerie van Financiën
(in Dutch), ''

NRC Handelsblad ''NRC'', previously called ''NRC Handelsblad'' (), is a daily morning newspaper published in the Netherlands by NRC Media. It is generally accepted as a newspaper of record in the Netherlands. History ''NRC Handelsblad'' was first published on 1 ...

'', 28 January 2018. Retrieved 28 January 2018. On 26 January 2018, Centeno's office was searched by the Portuguese police. On 1 February, prosecutors dropped the investigation, concluding there was "no crime of favoritism or any other (crime)" and that it has archived the case.

Later career

In June 2020, the Portuguese government nominated Centeno as the next governor of the

, succeeding Carlos da Silva Costa.

Other activities

;European Union organizations *

European Investment Bank The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's investment bank and is owned by the EU Member States. It is one of the largest supranational lenders in the world. The EIB finances and invests both through equity and debt solutions ...

(EIB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2015–2020) *

(ESM), Member of the Board of Governors (2015–2020) ;International organizations *

African Development Bank The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) or (BAD) is a multilateral development finance institution headquartered in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, since September 2014. The AfDB is a financial provider to African governments and private companies i ...

(AfDB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2015–2020) *

Asian Development Bank The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966, which is headquartered in the Ortigas Center located in the city of Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines. The bank also maintains 31 field office ...

(ADB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2015–2020) *

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is an international financial institution founded in 1991. As a multilateral developmental investment bank, the EBRD uses investment as a tool to build market economies. Initially focus ...

(EBRD), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2015–2020) *

Inter-American Investment Corporation The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB or IADB) is an International financial institutions, international financial institution headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States of America, and serving as the largest source of development finan ...

(IIC), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2015–2020) *

Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) is an international financial institution which offers political risk insurance and credit enhancement guarantees. These guarantees help investors protect foreign direct investments against ...

(MIGA),

World Bank Group The World Bank Group (WBG) is a family of five international organizations that make leveraged loans to developing countries. It is the largest and best-known development bank in the world and an observer at the United Nations Development Grou ...

, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2015–2020) *

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2015–2020) ;Non-profit organizations * IZA Institute of Labor Economics, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Fellow (since 2009)Mário Centeno
IZA Institute of Labor Economics, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA). * ''Portuguese Economic Journal'', Member of the Editorial Board (since 2001)

Recognition

* 2001 – Young Economist Award of the European Economic Association (EEA) * 2006 – Latin Union Award for Scientific Merit

Personal life

Centeno was married to Maria Margarida Morgado, one of his university classmates from ISEG, and had three children with her. She died in 2022. As a student, Centeno played rugby for the economics faculty. He is a keen soccer enthusiast and supports Lisbon club Benfica. He wore a Portugal soccer scarf to the first Eurogroup meeting after his country won the European championship in 2016.Axel Bugge (4 December 2017)
Centeno brings Portuguese charm to Eurogroup top job
''Reuters''.

References

External links

* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Centeno, Mario 1966 births Finance ministers of Portugal Government ministers of Portugal Governors of the Bank of Portugal Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Living people Members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) People from Olhão 20th-century Portuguese economists Technical University of Lisbon alumni Independent politicians in Portugal 21st-century Portuguese economists