Former PM Zolotas dies at 100
Professor Xenophon Zolotas, a former prime minister and leading economist credited with reviving Greece’s shattered economy after World War II, died late on Thursday at the age of 100. In a statement yesterday, President Costis Stephanopoulos described Zolotas as «one of the most illustrious Greeks of his time.» One of the four leading international economists entrusted with the shaping of the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) in 1960, Zolotas served as regional director for Greece of the International Monetary Fund between 1946-67. He was appointed joint governor of the Bank of Greece in 1944, at the age of 40, and again headed the country’s central bank between 1955-67, and 1974-1981. In 1968, he resigned his Athens University chair in protest at the military dictatorship imposed in April 1967. In late November 1989, Zolotas was chosen to lead an all-party caretaker government that served until April 1990. The funeral will be held at 1 p.m. today, at the Athens First Cemetery.
