By The New York Times (World News) | Created at 2024-09-28 19:15:09 | Updated at 2024-09-30 05:14:47
1 day ago
Americas|Antônio Delfim Netto, Brazilian Economic Czar, Dies at 96
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/28/world/americas/antonio-delfim-netto-dead.html
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He was credited for the high-growth economy during the early years of Brazil’s long military dictatorship. But critics said his policies brought only short-lived gains.
Sept. 28, 2024, 3:12 p.m. ET
Antônio Delfim Netto, the Brazilian finance minister who was credited for the high-growth economy known as the “Brazilian miracle” during the early years of the country’s 21-year military dictatorship, but then excoriated for the hyperinflation and recession that followed, died on Aug. 12 in São Paulo. He was 96.
His death, in a hospital, was announced by his office.
Mr. Delfim was a bundle of contradictions, variously categorized as a technocrat, a neo-capitalist and a promoter of greater state control over the economy. His portly profile, oversize owlish glasses and penchant for white shirts, black suits and ties were in stark contrast to the suave aristocratic Rio style of his day. Though his policies endeared him to business leaders, he also introduced price controls and inflation-indexed wages that brought short-term relief to the working poor.
To his detractors, Mr. Delfim was an opportunist who supported both the repressive military regime that lasted from 1964 to 1985 and the civilian governments that replaced it until public opinion turned against them. His policies, critics pointed out, brought only short-lived economic gains while exacerbating vast income inequality.
But according to his defenders, Mr. Delfim presided over the transformation of a backward agrarian nation into Latin America’s industrial and exporting powerhouse.
“Brazil realized its extraordinary growth in exports even though the experts said we couldn’t,” Mr. Delfim bragged to The New York Times in 1979, recalling a hallmark of the so-called miracle years, between 1968 and 1974, when he was finance minister and annual growth averaged 10 percent. “It happened because the exporters knew that the government was completely behind them.”
But when the economy turned sour under his aegis, he was quick to blame external factors beyond his control, including a steep rise in international oil prices and higher interest rates on global capital markets.
