The economist and former Minister of Finance, Ernane Galvêas, died early this evening (23), at the age of 99, at Hospital Samaritano, in Botafogo, south of Rio. A career employee at Banco do Brasil, Galvêas held several positions in the federal government, including the presidency of the Central Bank, in the Costa e Silva and Médici governments. The economist earlier this week underwent throat surgery.
After a period in the private sector, during the João Figueiredo government (1979-1985) Galvêas returned to the presidency of the Central Bank for a brief period (August 1979 to January 1980), then assumed the Ministry of Finance.
Alongside Delfim Netto, then chief minister of the Planning Secretariat (Seplan), he started to command the government’s economic team. His arrival at the ministry took place during the second oil crisis (1979-1980), when the government sought to combat inflation, balance the balance of payments, reduce dependence on imported energy and, above all, devise a strategy that would allow for the adjustment of the Brazilian economy to a new international economic reality.
Trajectory
Galvêas joined Banco do Brasil in 1942, becoming in 1953 deputy head of the Economic Department of the Superintendence of Money and Credit (Sumoc).
The following year, he took an extension course in monetary policy at the Center for Latin American Monetary Studies in Mexico. In 1956, he completed the course in Economics and, in 1964, the course in Law. He studied at the Economic Institute in Wisconsin and in 1959 at Yale University in Connecticut, where he earned a master’s degree.
In 1961, the economist left Sumoc to become an economic advisor to the Ministry of Finance, remaining in that role until 1966, during the Jânio Quadros, João Goulart and Castelo Branco governments. Also in 1961, he was part of the Brazilian delegation that attended the meeting of the Inter-American Economic and Social Council of the Organization of American States (OAS), at which the Alliance for Progress was created.
In 1962, Ernane Galvêas was hired by the Intr-American Development Bank (IDB), participated in a team of Latin American technicians responsible for preparing a study on the financing of exports of capital goods. He was a member of the deliberative councils of the Northeast Development Superintendence (Sudene) and the National Supply Superintendence (Sunab).
Until the closing of the matter, the family did not confirm the time of the wake and the place of the burial.
