Ciampi, Carlo Azeglio (1920– )

Italian economist and president 1999–2006. A former prime minister, finance minister and central banker, Ciampi was elected Italy's head of state in 1999. Ciampi, who received a two-thirds majority in the first ballot by members of both houses of parliament, has no direct party affiliation and has usually managed to remain above the fray of party politics. He was governor of Italy's central bank 1979–93 and treasury and budget minister 1996–99; he also served a short term as premier 1993–94. Ciampi has a prestigious international reputation as being largely responsible for successfully masterminding Italy's entry into the European single currency.

Ciampi was for many years the country's most respected economic official. He became governor of Italy's central bank, Banca d'Italia, in 1979 when spiraling inflation was at its height. Ciampi did his best to stabilize the economy, with some surprising success in the late 1980s, and supervised the lira's entry into the European Monetary System in 1979 until its forced exit 13 years later. Throughout this period his annual reports from the central bank provided key suggestions for economic and monetary policy. Moving Italy closer to European Monetary Union was always one of his prime concerns. In 1993, after political scandal had discredited nearly every party and many politicians, Ciampi was called to lead the country's resurrection as prime minister. While in office from April 1993 to March 1994 he pressed on with the government's stalled privatization plans, reduced the deficit, and introduced a new, highly successful method of negotiation between trade unions and employers' organizations, based on three-way bargaining between government, unions, and employers.

After the electoral victory of a centre–left coalition in 1996, the new prime minister, Romano Prodi, gave Ciampi new powers as minister of treasury, budget, and economic programming – the treasury and budget were two separate departments that were united under one minister for the first time. Referred to as the ‘super-minister’ of the Prodi government, Ciampi pursued his policies of fiscal rigour and economic austerity and succeeded, against all odds, in carrying Italy into the European Monetary Union. When Massimo D'Alema, the leader of Italy's Democratic Left Party, became prime minister in October 1998, Ciampi agreed to stay on in office. Nominated for the presidency in 1999, Ciampi was quickly assured of success after government and opposition leaders agreed to vote him in for a seven-year term in just one ballot, thus avoiding a prolonged contest. The previous presidential election, in 1992, had taken 10 days and 16 ballots to resolve.

Born in Livorno, Ciampi was educated in the humanities and obtained his first degree, in Italian literature, from the University of Pisa. During the war he changed academic direction, went back to university, and got a law degree in 1946. In that same year he joined the Bank of Italy, where he spent his entire career. In 1960 he joined its research unit and became the unit's director in 1970. Ciampi became the bank's secretary general in 1973, and its deputy director general in 1976. In 1978 he became director general – the number two position within the institution – and finally, governor of the Bank of Italy 1979. He was also vice-president of the Bank for International Settlements 1994–96, chairman of the EU Competitiveness Advisory Group 1995–96, and chairman of the International Monetary Fund's policy-making interim committee from 1998.