The Hungarian 'father of the euro' passes away

Alexandre Lámfalussy, the Hungarian-born economist and banker known as one of the fathers of the common European currency, the Euro, and the head of the predecessor of the the European Central Bank, passed away less than a month after his 86th birthday.

Alexandre Lámfalussy, the Hungarian-born economist and banker known as the “father of the euro”, has died aged 87, his family has disclosed.

Born as Sándor Lámfalussy on April 26, 1929 in Kapuvár, western Hungary, the world-renowned economist had been living in Belgium since 1949 and he had Belgian citizenship.

He was one of the economists - as a member of the Delors Commission (1988-89) - participating in devising the plan for the European Monetary Union to introduce the common European currency, the Euro.

From 1994 to 1997, he was the first president of the Frankfurt-based European Monetary Institute, the predecessor of the European Central Bank.

Several European and Hungarian leaders have expressed their condolences on his death. The European Central Bank called him "one of the euro's founding fathers" while a statemen by the Hungarian Ministry of National Economy said "we have lost a determining figure of economics."