| Leszek Balcerowicz | |
|---|---|
| Deputy Prime Minister of Poland | |
| In office September 12, 1989 – December 23, 1991 |
|
| President | Wojciech Jaruzelski Lech Wałęsa |
| Prime Minister | Tadeusz Mazowiecki Jan Krzysztof Bielecki |
| Deputy Prime Minister of Poland | |
| In office October 31, 1997 – June 8, 2000 |
|
| President | Aleksander Kwaśniewski |
| Prime Minister | Jerzy Buzek |
| Finance Minister of Poland 1st Minister of Finance of the Third Republic of Poland |
|
| In office September 12, 1989 – December 23, 1991 |
|
| President | Wojciech Jaruzelski |
| Prime Minister | Tadeusz Mazowiecki Jan Krzysztof Bielecki |
| Preceded by | Andrzej Wróblewski |
| Succeeded by | Karol Lutowski |
| Finance Minister of Poland 8th Minister of Finance of the Third Republic of Poland |
|
| In office October 31, 1997 – June 8, 2000 |
|
| President | Aleksander Kwaśniewski |
| Prime Minister | Jerzy Buzek |
| Preceded by | Marek Belka |
| Succeeded by | Jarosław Bauc |
| President of The National Bank of Poland | |
| In office January 10, 2001 – January 10, 2007 |
|
| Preceded by | Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz |
| Succeeded by | Sławomir Skrzypek |
| Chairman of the Freedom Union | |
| In office April 1, 1995 – December 18, 2000 |
|
| Preceded by | Tadeusz Mazowiecki |
| Succeeded by | Bronisław Geremek |
| Member of Sejm | |
| In office October 20, 1997 – October 18, 2001 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | January 19, 1947 Lipno, Poland |
| Political party | Freedom Union, Partia Demokratyczna – demokraci.pl |
| Spouse(s) | Ewa Balcerowicz |
| Children | Maciej (b. 1972) & Wojciech (b. 1980) & Anna (b. 1984) |
| Profession | Economist |
Leszek Balcerowicz (pronounced: [ˈlɛʂɛk balt͡sɛˈrɔvit͡ʂ] ( listen); born January 19, 1947 in Lipno) is a Polish economist, the former chairman of the National Bank of Poland and Deputy Prime Minister in Tadeusz Mazowiecki's government. He is famous for implementing the Polish economic transformation program in the 1990s, a shock therapy commonly referred to as the Balcerowicz Plan.
He is a professor at the world’s first university institute of postgraduate studies and training in European affairs College of Europe.
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In 1970 he graduated with distinction from the Foreign Trade faculty of the Central School of Planning and Statistics in Warsaw (now the Warsaw School of Economics). Balcerowicz received his MBA from St. John's University in New York, in 1974 and doctorate from the Warsaw School of Economics in 1975.
He was a member of the Polish communist party (Polish United Workers' Party) from 1969 until the declaration of martial law in Poland, in 1981. In the late 1970s he participated in an economic-advisory team associated with the prime minister of People's Republic of Poland. In 1978–1980 he worked at Institute of Marxism-Leninism. Later he became an economics expert in the independent trade union Solidarity, and was forced to leave the communist party.
From September 1989 to August 1991 and also between October 31, 1997 and June 8, 2000 he held the positions of Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Poland. Between 1995 and 2000 he was the chairman of Freedom Union, then a centrist political party. On December 22, 2000 he became the Chairman of the National Bank of Poland. He was also a columnist for Wprost, a popular Polish news magazine.
On November 11, 2005, the President of Poland, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, awarded L. Balcerowicz with the country's highest decoration, the Order of the White Eagle, for his contribution to Poland's economic transformation. In 2006 he was elected member of Galeria Chwały Polskiej Ekonomii, a hall of fame for outstanding Polish economists.[1]
Balcerowicz is a member of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, an independent initiative hosted by the UNDP and the first global initiative to focus specificially on the link between exclusion, poverty and the law. He is also a member of the influential Washington-based financial advisory body, the Group of Thirty, and is a Board member of renowned Washington, D.C. think-tank the Peterson Institute. Fellow of Collegium Invisibile.[2]
Since June 11, 2008 Balcerowicz has been a member of the board of Bruegel, the Brussels-based think tank on international economics.[3]
The Balcerowicz Plan was a series of reforms, which sought to end hyperinflation and balance the national budget. The prices of most consumer goods were freed and caps for annual increases established in state-sector employees' wages. Poland's currency, the Złoty was made convertible within the country's borders. This resulted in a substantial increase in prices and had forced state-owned companies to become competitive. This amounted to a real shock to the Polish economy.
The reforms were controversial and made Balcerowicz an object of harsh criticism, especially in his homeland. On the other hand most economists agree that without introducing such radical changes, Poland's economic success and steady economic growth would not have been possible. Since 1989, Poland's annual growth rate was one of the highest of all post-Communist economies, and have not entered economic recession.
| Preceded by Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz |
President of the National Bank of Poland 2001–2007 |
Succeeded by Sławomir Skrzypek |
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