Economist and former minister Antônio Delfim Netto died this Monday (12), at the age of 96, in São Paulo. Since the 5th, he had been hospitalized due to health complications at the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, in the capital of São Paulo.
In a statement, the economist’s advisors said that there will be no open wake and his burial will be restricted to family. Delfim Netto leaves behind a daughter and grandson.
A descendant of Italian immigrants, he was born in São Paulo in May 1928. He graduated in economics in 1951 from the University of São Paulo (USP) and became a professor in 1958. He had an academic career as a full professor of Macroeconomic Analysis and received the title of professor emeritus from the Faculty of Economics, Administration and Accounting of the University of São Paulo (Fea-USP).
He was a member of the Planning Advisory Council (Consplan) of the Castelo Branco government in 1965. He became Secretary of Finance in the government of São Paulo in 1966.
He was one of the signatories of Institutional Act number 5 (AI-5), on December 13, 1968. The decree is considered the harshest after the military coup of 1964, and was instituted during the Costa e Silva government, to suspend individual rights and guarantees.
Delfim Netto became Minister of Finance in 1967, still in the Costa e Silva government, and held the position until the Médici government, which ended in 1974.
For the next four years, he was Brazil’s ambassador to France and, in 1979, he joined the National Monetary Council and headed the Central Bank during the Figueiredo government.
Delfim was a federal deputy in the Constituent Assembly from 1987 to 1991 for the Social Democratic Party, successor to Arena. He was subsequently elected federal deputy for the state of São Paulo five times and remained a representative in the Chamber until 2007.
