Raul Prebisch, 85; Latin Economist and Longtime U.N. Official

Raul Prebisch, probably Latin America’s best-known economist and who was identified throughout the world as a leading spokesman for underdeveloped nations, died Tuesday of heart failure. He was 85.

Prebisch, an Argentine, was one of the founders of the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Latin America--or ECLA--to which he was linked throughout his life. He also was a former secretary general of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, and in 1974 was recalled to U.N. service to help raise $4.6 billion for the 32 nations hardest hit by the then-world economic crisis.

A spokesman at ECLA headquarters in Santiago said Prebisch died of heart failure in his bed. His remains will be cremated and flown to Buenos Aires for burial.

The “Prebisch Thesis,” which was controversial among Western economists well into the 1980s, contended that developing countries could not progress unless they supplemented their agricultural economies with national industries.

“If a country stays only with agricultural production, it will not be able to absorb the increase in the work force,” Prebisch said in a 1985 interview. Agricultural growth is important, he said, “but there must be simultaneous industrialization.”

Prebisch was living in Santiago so he could continue to work at ECLA. Only last week he had attended ECLA’s biannual conference in Mexico City.

Prebisch’s six-decade career as an economist and civil servant was highlighted by his becoming in 1948 the first executive secretary of ECLA.

He directed ECLA until 1962, and after his retirement was a permanent adviser and writer for that organization.