Miguel Boyer (5 February 1939 – 29 September 2014) was a Spanish economist and politician, who served as minister of economy, treasury and commerce from 1982 to 1985.
Boyer worked at different banks and institutions.[4] He served as the director of planning for the Unión Explosivos Río Tinto and later as a senior economist at the Bank of Spain.[5][6] He became the deputy director of the national industrial institute and then its director in 1974.[1] Next he worked at the state-owned hydrocarbons institute.[5] He was one of the Ibercorp shareholders.[7]
Boyer was appointed minister of economy, treasury and commerce to the first cabinet of Felipe González on 2 December 1982.[4][11] In 1985, he developed a tax act that enabled people to avoid tax on saving interest if they invested in insurance accounts.[12] During his term he was regarded as the most powerful member of the cabinet.[13][14] However, in a cabinet reshuffle in July 1985 Boyer was removed from office and was succeeded by Carlos Solchaga in the post.[13][15] It was speculated that Boyer was forced to resign due to his clash with Deputy Prime Minister Alfonso Guerra.[13][14] In addition, Boyer attempted to increase his power in the cabinet and demanded to assume the post of second vice prime minister, also leading to his forced resignation.[16]
Shortly after leaving office Boyer was named as the chief executive of the Banco Exterior de Espana and next of the investment company, Cartera Central.[17] In 1986, he was named as a member of the Abragam committee that oversaw the future structure of the CERN.[18][19] Until 1999 he served as a senior manager at the Spanish construction group FCC.[20] From July 1999 to January 2005, he was the chairman of CLH, a Spanish fuel distribution company.[20] In May 2010, Boyer was appointed board member to the Hispania Racing Team.[21] He also assumed the post of finance director and advisor to the team.[22] On 20 May 2010, he was also named as the independent member of the board of directors of Red Electrica Corporacion SA.[3] In addition, he served as the head of Urbis.[23]
In the 1970s, Boyer supported self-managing socialism.[25] However, later he became known for his orthodox, moderate and pragmatic approach to economy.[26] Despite being a member of the socialist government, he adopted neo-liberal views of economy when he was minister.[16] In addition, he and his successor Carlos Solchaga did not fit into the party's projected socialist mould.[27] They both implemented economic policies based the orthodox liberal ideas, and the social outcomes of these policies were largely neglected.[28] Their priority was to reduce inflation, using steps to control the money supply, which reinforced the high levels of interest and a strong currency.[27] Although Boyer's policy decreased the rate of inflation and government spending, Spain experienced the Europe's highest unemployment rate at about 20%.[29] Boyer also encouraged the economic integration of Spain into the European Union.[30]
^Dennis Kavanagh, ed. (1998). "González Márquez, Felipe". A Dictionary of Political Biography. Who's Who in Twentieth-Century World Politics. Oxford: OUP. p. 191. ISBN978-0192800350.
^Juliá Santos (1990). "The ideological conversion of the leaders of the PSOE, 1976-1979". In Lannon Frances; Preston Paul (eds.). Élites and power in twentieth-century Spain. Essays in honour of Sir Raymond Carr. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN9780198228806.