Peter Praet (born 20 January 1949 in Herchen near Eitorf,

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

Allied-occupied Germany The entirety of Germany was occupied and administered by the Allies of World War II, from the Berlin Declaration on 5 June 1945 to the establishment of West Germany on 23 May 1949. Unlike occupied Japan, Nazi Germany was stripped of its sov ...

) is a Belgian economist who served as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 2011 to 2019 and concurrently as ECB chief economist following his 2012 appointment. Within the ECB, Praet was widely considered to be centrist on

monetary policy Monetary policy is the policy adopted by the monetary authority of a nation to affect monetary and other financial conditions to accomplish broader objectives like high employment and price stability (normally interpreted as a low and stable rat ...

with a “dovish” tilt, meaning he was more likely to take growth prospects into account in the conduct of monetary policy than strict inflation “hawks” do.

Early life and education

Praet is half-Belgian and half-German, his father being from Belgium and his mother from Germany. He graduated from

Université libre de Bruxelles The (French language, French, ; lit. Free University of Brussels; abbreviated ULB) is a French-speaking research university in Brussels, Belgium. It has three campuses: the ''Solbosch'' campus (in the City of Brussels and Ixelles), the ''Plain ...

, with a BA in economics, an MA in economics in 1972, and PhD in economics in 1980.

Career

Praet was chief economist for

Fortis Bank BNP Paribas Fortis is an international bank based in Belgium and a subsidiary of French banking group BNP Paribas. The bank was created in May 2009 after BNP Paribas acquired 75% of the Belgian Fortis Bank from the Federal Participation and Inve ...

. Between 1999 and 2000, he served as chief of staff to Belgian Finance Minister

Didier Reynders Didier Reynders (; born 6 August 1958) is a Belgian politician and a member of the Reformist Movement, Mouvement Réformateur (MR) that served as List of European Commissioners for Justice and Equality, European Commissioner for Justice until 30 ...

. In this capacity, his main task was to lay the ground for Reynders’

Eurogroup The Eurogroup is the recognised collective term for the informal meetings of the finance ministers of the eurozone—those member states of the European Union (EU) which have adopted the euro as their official currency. The group has 20 members ...

presidency in 2001 and oversee the country's most ambitious tax-reform plan in decades. Praet was executive director of the

National Bank of Belgium The National Bank of Belgium (NBB; , NBB; , BNB; , BNB) is the National central bank (Eurosystem), national central bank for Belgium within the Eurosystem. It was the Belgian central bank from 1850 until 1998, established by law of and issuin ...

from 2000 to 2011. He was also a member of the

Basel Committee on Banking Supervision The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) is a committee of banking supervisory authorities that was established by the central bank governors of the Group of Ten (G10) countries in 1974. The committee expanded its membership in 2009 a ...

and an alternate member of the

Bank for International Settlements The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is an international financial institution which is owned by member central banks. Its primary goal is to foster international monetary and financial cooperation while serving as a bank for central bank ...

' Global Economy Meeting. At the same time, he was professor of

Monetary Economics Monetary economics is the branch of economics that studies the different theories of money: it provides a framework for analyzing money and considers its functions (as medium of exchange, store of value, and unit of account), and it considers how m ...

at the

Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management The Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (abbreviated as SBS-EM and also known as simply Solvay) is a school of economics and management, and a Faculty of the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), a French-speaking private rese ...

European Central Bank, 2011–2019

Before his appointment, Praet was nominated several times by the Belgian government to join the ECB Board. In 2004, his candidacy failed when the German, French, Italian and Spanish governments agreed the biggest Eurozone countries should always have a national member on the six-member board, and therefore chose José Manuel González-Páramo. In 2010, when Praet was proposed to the bank's vice-presidency, governments agreed that the position should go to a sitting governor of a central bank and not, as Praet then was, a director; as a consequence,

Vítor Constâncio Vítor Manuel Ribeiro Constâncio (born 12 October 1943) is a Portuguese economist and academic who most recently served as Vice President of the European Central Bank, from 2010 to 2018. He previously served as Minister of Finance in 1978 an ...

was chosen by the

European Council The European Council (informally EUCO) is a collegiate body (directorial system) and a symbolic collective head of state, that defines the overall political direction and general priorities of the European Union (EU). It is composed of the he ...

to replace

Lucas Papademos Lucas Demetrios Papademos (; born 11 October 1947) is a Greek economist and academic who served as Prime Minister of Greece from November 2011 to May 2012, leading a national unity government in the wake of the Greek government debt crisis, Greek ...

as vice-president. In 2011, Praet replaced Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell; the other candidate for the position had been Elena Kohútiková. Praet's appointment as ECB chief economist, which prepares recommendations on interest rate decisions superseded recommendations in favor of French and German counterparts. It was the first time in the bank's then 13-year history that the economics portfolio was given to a non-German. Peter Praet retired in June 2019 after an eight-year run at the ECB.

Other activities

* Bruegel, member of the board of trustees (2004–2011) * Brussels Finance Institute (BFI), member of the academic advisory board (2010–2011) * European Policy Centre (EPC), member of the board (2004–2007)

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Praet, Peter 1949 births Belgian economists Living people Executive Board of the European Central Bank members