Roberto Alemann

The liberal economic reforms proposed since December 1981, during the military dictatorship of Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri, remained unfinished.

Roberto Alemann studied at University of Buenos Aires, University of Bern and National School of Buenos Aires. The recorded working language is Spanish. The field of work recorded is economics. Places of work recorded in the authority are Buenos Aires. Employment is recorded with University of Buenos Aires.

• Name — Roberto Alemann • Office — Minister of Economy of Argentina • President — Leopoldo Galtieri • Term Start — December 22, 1981 • Term End — June 30, 1982 • Predecessor — Lorenzo Sigaut • Successor — José María Dagnino Pastore • Term Start2 — April 26, 1961 • Term End2 — January 12, 1962 • President2 — Arturo Frondizi • Predecessor2 — Álvaro Alsogaray • Successor2 — Carlos Coll Benegas • Born — 22 December 1922 • Birthplace — Buenos Aires, Argentina • Died — 27 March 2020 • Place of death — Buenos Aires, Argentina • Occupation — Publisher and academic • Education — University of Buenos Aires University of Bern

Alemann was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1922. His family, prominent German Argentines of Swiss extraction, had established the nation's premier German-language daily, Argentinisches Tageblatt, in 1874. He graduated from the Buenos Aires National College in 1941, and from the University of Buenos Aires with a law degree in 1947. Alemann studied economics at the University of Bern in 1947–48, and returned to Buenos Aires to complete a doctorate in social sciences in 1952.

Opposed to the populist policies of President Juan Perón, he joined senior policy adviser Raúl Prebisch's team following the 1955 coup against Perón, and took part in negotiations leading to the first loans granted to the Argentine government by the Paris Club of multilateral creditors.

Alsogaray was replaced in April 1961 by Roberto Alemann. Alemann's structuralist approach complemented unofficial Frondizi point man Rogelio Julio Frigerio's policies well, as both focused on correcting the adverse effects of financing increasingly costly machinery imports with raw material exports of declining value (a terms of trade problem common to developing countries), though conservative and military pressure resulted in his removal in January 1962.

Following his ousting, Alemann returned to the private sector as a lobbyist for Swiss banking giant UBS, and was also, from 1964 to 1973, Professor of Economic Policy at his alma mater (authoring a textbook in 1970). The right-wing economist appointed by the National Reorganization Process dictatorship installed in 1976, José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz, implemented a sweeping program of financial deregulation and free trade which by 1981 collapsed under the weight of a US$37 billion foreign debtmost of it the result of a wave of private currency speculation and government military spending. Alemann's brother, Juan Alemann, served as Treasury Secretary during the dictatorship and was nearly killed by a bomb placed in his residence in 1979, allegedly by a Montoneros guerilla operative.

Named Economy Minister by a new dictator, General Leopoldo Galtieri, in December 1981, Alemann departed from his expansionist policies of twenty years earlier and introduced his own austerity program: cuts in public spending, accelerated devaluation of the peso (which had already lost 75% of its value during 1981), and a mandatory wage freeze (amid 10% monthly inflation). He also attempted to repair relations with the International Monetary Fund by proposing the privatization of an array of state enterprises, and elicited signals of support from the Reagan administration, but also triggered protest from labor unions, culminating in a massive, March 30, 1982, rally against Alemann by the General Confederation of Labour (Argentina) (CGT), then South America's largest trade union. Ultimately, Galtieri's invasion of the Falkland Islands, on April 2, derailed Alemann's rapprochement with U.S. and European creditors, and following Galtieri's defeat and subsequent resignation in June, Alemann was replaced; the economy, which had fallen 6% in 1981, fell by as much again in 1982 to its lowest level in a decade.

He retired from public service, devoting his time to the Tageblatt as managing editor, and contributing occasional op-ed columns in the centrist Clarín. Continuing to lecture on economic policy matters, the octogenarian was assaulted by opponents at least twice after 2002, though he suffered only minor injuries. He died at the age of 97 in Buenos Aires in 2020.