Uganda’s most influential economist has died

SOMETIMES CHANGINGIMF an economy starts with a metaphor. In 1992 Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile, the top civil servant in Uganda’s finance ministry, began comparing inflation to indiscipline in the army. He knew that would resonate with Yoweri Museveni, a rebel who had fought his way to power six years earlier. Soon the president was declaring that “inflation is indiscipline.” The slogan was pinned on office walls and Mr Mutebile was given a licence to slash spending. Inflation fell from 200% to single digits in a few months.The formidable Mr Mutebile would spend another decade at the ministry, and two more at the helm of the Bank of Uganda. When he died on January 23rd, aged 72, he was the longest-serving central bank governor in Africa. But his most enduring legacy is those frenetic years in the 1990s when he pushed his country decisively towards the free market. It was a time of fraught, painful change across the continent, often spurred by the World Bank and . As the career of Mr Mutebile shows, reform went furthest when pushed by locals who actually believed in it.