Vítor Constâncio

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Vítor Constâncio
File:Vítor Constancio at Chatham House.jpg
Constâncio at Chatham House in 2013
Vice President of the European Central Bank
Assumed office
1 June 2010
President Jean-Claude Trichet
Mario Draghi
Preceded by Lucas Papademos
Governor of the Bank of Portugal
In office
February 2000 – 31 May 2010
Preceded by António de Sousa
Succeeded by Carlos Costa
Personal details
Born (1943-10-12) 12 October 1943 (age 80)
Lisbon, Portugal
Political party Socialist Party

Vítor Manuel Ribeiro Constâncio, GCC, GCIH (born 12 October 1943) is a Portuguese economist and politician, Vice President of the European Central Bank. Constâncio graduated in economics from the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa.

He was secretary-general of the Socialist Party from 1986 to 1989. He lost the legislative elections of 19 July 1987, but remained in office. He resigned the following year, being replaced by Jorge Sampaio.

He was governor of the Banco de Portugal, the Portuguese central bank, from 2000 to 2010, having been re-appointed in 2006.[1] Under his presidency the Bank of Portugal has spend one third of its original holdings of 600 tons of gold to 400 tons, approximately.[2]

He was appointed vice-governor in 1977, in 1979, and in the period from 1981 to 1984. He was Governor of the Portuguese Central Bank from 1985 to 1986.[1] While in office, he advocated salaries stagnation or increases below inflation, as a way to increase the Portuguese economy's competitiveness.

Two Portuguese banks (Banco Português de Negócios (BPN) and Banco Privado Português (BPP) had been accumulating losses for years due to bad investiments, embezzlement and accounting fraud. The Portuguese Central Bank, led by Constâncio, was criticized for having allowed this situation for years.

Constâncio was appointed vice president of European Central Bank, for an eight-year mandate, in a banking supervision capacity.[3]

Shortly after, on 6 April 2011, the Portuguese Government, facing increasing difficulties in securing its financing needs in the international financial markets, formally requested international financial assistance leading to a €78 billion program with equal participation of the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism, European Financial Stability Facility and International Monetary Fund.

References

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  2. Portugal: as más vendas de ouro. informacaoincorrecta.blogspot.pt, retrieved 25 May 2015
  3. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.