6 euro – Prominent Greek Economists - Angelos Angelopoulos
Series: Greece – Silver 6 euro coins
Angelos Angelopoulos was Professor of Public and
Applied Economics, Director of the Higher Economic
Council, Deputy Minister in the first post-war
government of G. Papandreou, Governor of the National
Bank of Greece and Member of the Academy of Athens.
He took part in the Greek Resistance and was actively
involved in crucial developments in Greece over the
following decades, not only as an economic theorist, but
also as a policy maker. He produced a significant body of
work on fiscal policy and equity, as well as on public debt
management. His books Direct Taxation in Greece and
The Public Debt of Greece are today considered classics.
He believed in the “economic and social mission of
fiscal policy” and advocated that economic growth
must go hand in hand with social justice, while he also
warned against excessive government borrowing. He
was the founder and President of the Greek Society
for Planning, which conducted important research
and drew up the first Ten-year Economic Plan for
Greece 1961-1970. In 1990, with Greece on the brink
of fiscal collapse, he presided over the committee of
experts that prepared and published the Report on the
Stabilisation and Growth of the Greek Economy, which
identified the causes of Greece’s poor economic
performance and recommended drastic measures to
address the chronic problems of the Greek economy.