site.bta100th Birth Anniversary of Ex-PM Lyuben Berov

Prof. Lyuben Berov, an economist who served as Bulgaria's prime minister in 1992-1994, was born 100 years ago on Monday.

Born in Sofia on October 6, 1925, Berov graduated in economics from the St Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia in 1949. He taught at the Karl Marx Higher Institute of Economics (now University of National and World Economy) in Sofia between 1950 and 1986, first as assistant professor (1950), then associate professor (1962), and full professor (1971). In 1976, he earned a doctorate in economic sciences. Between 1950 and 1976, he headed the Institute's Economic History Department, and was also deputy dean and dean of a faculty.

In 1997, he was elected corresponding member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and in 1985 started work at the Academy's Institute of Balkan Studies. He was also a professor at the Academy's Economic Research Institute. He was elected Senior Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford. In 1973, he chaired the Bulgarian section of the International Economic History Association.

Between 1990 and 1992, Berov was economic adviser to President Zhelyu Zhelev.

On December 30, 1992, he headed a cabinet of non-party experts, elected by Parliament on a mandate handed to the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and backed by the Bulgarian Socialist Party. Until June 23, 1993, he was concurrently minister of foreign affairs. As a result of the government's poor performance on the home front, Berov resigned on September 2, 1994, and his cabinet was succeeded by Reneta Indzhova's caretaker cabinet on October 17, 1994.

From 1995 to 1997, he was member of the Board of Directors of the Farm Credit Centre, Inc. and chaired the Board in 1997. In 1996, he chaired the Plenary Council of the Bulgarian-Russian Investment Bank. In 1998, he chaired the Board of Directors of Agroproduct B AD in Sofia.

Berov published more than 200 books, textbooks and articles on the economic history of Bulgaria and the Balkans. In 1980, he was awarded the Order of Cyril and Methodius, First Class.

Lyuben Berov passed away in Sofia on December 7, 2006, aged 81. He was survived by his wife, Tanya Berova, and two children: a son and a daughter.