20 Facts About Gustavo Franco

Gustavo Franco teaches economics at the Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro since 1986.

Gustavo Franco is a businessman, consultant and has served on many boards.

Gustavo Franco founded Rio Bravo Investimentos where he works as Senior Advisor.

Gustavo Franco has written several books, academic papers and contributes regularly to newspapers and magazines.

Gustavo Franco's mother Maria Isabel Barbosa de Barroso Franco, was from Teofilo Otoni, state of Minas Gerais, and his father, Guilherme Arinos Lima Verde de Barroso Franco, was born in Itacoatiara, at the backlands of the state of Amazonas.

Gustavo Franco obtained a bachelor's and master's degree in economics at the Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro, where he developed interests in economic history and macroeconomics.

Gustavo Franco had brief fellowships at the CFIA, CES and National Bureau of Economic Research.

Gustavo Franco had an intense academic activity during these years; his research interests had three key themes: on high inflation and on the basis of topics and issues raised in his doctoral dissertation; on Brazil's economic history, mostly in connection with macroeconomic and monetary issues; and on trade policies, multinational enterprises and economic development, in collaboration with Winston Fritsch.

The URV, argued Sargent, would have been "a sideshow that hasn't touched the fundamental causes of inflation", and again Gustavo Franco took issue with that, writing in 2017, but this time on the back of the successful adoption of the URV mechanism.

In sequence to the work on monetary reforms in the early years of the Republic, Gustavo Franco published several pieces on the Brazilian monetary experience in the years prior to the Great Depression.

Gustavo Franco worked in collaboration with Winston Fritsch in a series of projects supported by the OECD Development Center.

Between 1993 and 1999, Gustavo Franco was active in public service.

Gustavo Franco started in May 1993 as Deputy Secretary of Economic Policy at the Finance Ministry up to October 1993 when he moved to the Central Bank of Brazil in the position of Deputy Governor responsible for International Affairs, position he occupied until 1997, and only interrupted by a brief tenure as governor of the Central Bank of Brazil between December 1994 and January 1995.

Gustavo Franco served as Deputy Economic Policy Secretary at the Finance Ministry from May to October 1993 by invitation from the newly appointed Minister, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the fourth Finance Minister of president Itamar Gustavo Franco, who had become president in December 1992 after the resignation of Fernando Collor de Mello.

Gustavo Franco was appointed Deputy Governor for International Affairs at the Central Bank on September 8,1993, when Pedro Malan was appointed Governor.

In parallel, Gustavo Franco had executive responsibilities in International Affairs at the Central Bank related to operational aspects of external debt restructuring under the Brady Plan, then at decisive moments, the administrative structures in charge of exchange controls, bound to be transformed by an ambitious deregulation process, the FOREX trading desk and international reserves management.

Right next to completing Brazil's Brady Plan version, simultaneously with the Real Plan, Gustavo Franco dealt with Paris Club debt and the Dart family, who did not wish to adhere to the Brady exchange.

The new program coordinated and executed by Gustavo Franco comprised 16 new issues in 10 different currencies, between 1995 and 1998, totaling US$ 8,2 billion, including the issuance of the so called "BR-27" in exchange for cash and for Brady bonds, thus recovering the previously offered collateral in US Treasury bonds.

Gustavo Franco left the Central Bank after the IMF Agreement and after the reelection of Fernando Henrique Cardoso for a second term in 1998.

Gustavo Franco is active as board member of Banco Daycoval, Seguradora Pottencial and as Chairman of Instituto Millenium, a Brazilian think tank.