| Mário Henrique Simonsen | |
| Office: | Minister of Finance |
| Term Start: | 15 March 1974 |
| Term End: | 15 March 1979 |
| President: | Ernesto Geisel |
| Predecessor: | José Flávio Pécora |
| Successor: | Karlos Rischbieter |
| Office1: | Minister of Planning |
| Term Start1: | 15 March 1979 |
| Term End1: | 10 August 1979 |
| President1: | João Figueiredo |
| Predecessor1: | Reis Veloso |
| Successor1: | Golbery do Couto e Silva |
| Birth Date: | 19 February 1935 |
| Birth Place: | Rio de Janeiro, Federal District, Brazil |
| Death Place: | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Profession: | Engineer, banker, economist |
Mário Henrique Simonsen (19 February 1935 – 9 February 1997) was a Brazilian economist, who served as Brazil's finance minister from 1974 to 1979.[1]
Simonsen was appointed Brazil's finance minister by President Ernesto Geisel with instructions to reduce the country's runaway inflation rate.
Despite Simonsen's efforts, the official inflation rate had risen to 40% per annum in 1979 and he was shifted to Planning Minister.
He was succeeded by Antonio Delfim Netto, with whom he had an uneasy relationship due to the latter's inclination to increase borrowing, and hence inflation.
Simonsen resigned from Cabinet in 1980 and became a director of Citicorp, a position he held until 1995 when he was forced by ill-health to retire. He was a chronic heavy smoker and suffered from emphysema.
Simonsen was an excellent baritone and an opera aficionado.
He was married to Iluska Pereira da Cunha Simonsen. Thy had two sons and a daughter.
|-