Harvard-Trained Economist Named Hungary’s New Premier

Miklos Nemeth, a Harvard-trained economist, was appointed Wednesday to succeed Communist Party leader Karoly Grosz as premier.

Veteran economic reformer Reszo Nyers, like Nemeth a member of the ruling Communist Party Politburo, was named to the newly created post of minister of state for the economy.

The new appointments, to be approved by Parliament today, were announced at a news conference by Gyoergy Fejti, secretary of the Communist Party’s policy-setting Central Committee.

Grosz announced last month that he intended to resign as premier by the end of December in order to concentrate on his position as Communist Party chief. He was appointed to the post in May to replace Janos Kadar.

Nemeth, 41, is a graduate of Budapest’s prestigious Karl Marx University and was a visiting student at Harvard.

Unpopular Austerity

He is expected to guide Hungary into a period of unpopular austerity, during which he will be able to tap the greater political experience of Nyers, who has a more pronounced profile as a political reformer.

Nyers’ appointment completed a political comeback.

The father of Hungary’s pioneering economic reforms in the 1960s, Nyers was dropped from the ruling party Politburo in 1974, when reforms were curbed. He was renamed to the body in May when Grosz succeeded Kadar.

Earlier rumors had tapped the Politburo’s leading political reformer, Imre Pozsgay, as a possible premier.