Georgios Alogoskoufis () (born 17 October 1955) is a professor of economics at the Athens University of Economics and Business since 1990. He was a member of the Hellenic Parliament from September 1996 till October 2009 and served as Greece's Minister of Economy and Finance from March 2004 till January 2009.
George Alogoskoufis was born in Athens on 17 October 1955.
In the period in which Alogoskoufis served as the minister for Economy and Finance, he actuated a series of economic structural reforms and fiscal adjustment to contain budget deficits, which, although unpopular, have failed to slash Greece's high 2004 budget deficit (from 5.7% in 2003 to 9.8% in 2008). In the same period of time, Greece's gross domestic product has grown by one of the highest growth rates in the Eurozone. Unemployment also fell significantly.
During 2004âÂÂ2007, marginal corporate and personal income taxes were reduced. He worked extensively with the private sector and sold over euro 6 billion of government holdings. However, these reforms did not prove sufficient to avert Greece external debt crisis in 2010.
George Alogoskoufis has been accused of falsifying Greece's economical data during his tenure, an exercise referred to as "Greek Statistics", which led to the county's bankruptcy in 2010.
George Alogoskoufis was pelted with eggs by Greek left wing activists at a meeting held at the London School of Economics on 14 November 2008. The activists threw the eggs as a protest against the Greek government.https://web.archive.org/web/20110717012838/http://www.thelondondailynews.com/greek-finance-minister-gets-pelted-with-eggs-p-1766.html
Alogoskoufis is the author of seven books and has published widely in macroeconomics, international monetary economics and public economics.
Over 40 papers have been published in some of the most prestigious international academic journals including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, the Journal of Monetary Economics, the European Economic Review, Economica, the Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Economic Journal and the Economic Policy. His research focuses on unemployment, inflation, exchange rates, economic growth and monetary and fiscal policy.
He has given invited lectures in some of the most prestigious universities in Europe, the US and Japan and has presented papers in a number of academic conferences worldwide.
The following is a selected list of journal articles by Alogoskoufis.
His PhD thesis was awarded the R. S. Sayers Prize of the London University for 1981. His book, "The Drachma: From the Phoenix to the Euro", was awarded the prize of the Academy of Athens in 2002.