Per Kleppe

Per Andreas Hildhe Kleppe (13 April 1923 – 10 March 2021) was a Norwegian economist and politician for the Labour Party.

He was the Minister of Trade and Shipping in 1971–1972 during the first cabinet Bratteli, and later the Minister of Finance from 1973 to 1979 during the second cabinet Bratteli and the cabinet Nordli. In 1979 he was replaced by Ulf Sand, but Kleppe returned in 1980 to head the Secretariat for Long-Term Planning (until 1981).

He served as General Secretary of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) from 1981 to 1988.

Personal life Kleppe was born in Kristiania (now Oslo) in April 1923, a son of lawyer Knut Sigurd Kleppe and Nathalie Mathilde Andersen; the family moved to Bergen when he was six years old. In 1951 he married editor Margaretha Eva Malmros Ström.

Political career Deputy member of the Storting and State Secretary As an elected politician Kleppe served in the position of deputy representative to the Norwegian Parliament from Oslo during the term 1954–1957. On the local level he was a deputy member of Oslo city council from 1951 to 1955.

Kleppe graduated from the University of Oslo with the cand.oecon. degree in 1956. He was appointed State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance from 1957 to 1962.

As Minister of trade Kleppe was given the task to finish the negotiations of Norwegian membership of the European Economic Community (EEC). However, membership was turned down by the 1972 Norwegian European Communities membership referendum on 25 September 1972, and the Bratteli cabinet resigned.

Kleppe served six years as Minister of Finance, and he was the architect behind several important strategic choices of economic policy. The so-called "", where the State contributed by offering improvements of certain benefits during salary negotiations between employer and employee organisations, came to be a central element to minimize inflation. In order to inhibit the threatening increase of unemployment, the government introduced several supportive measures and economic guarantees to the industry, in particular to maritime transport and shipyards.

Later years After he left his position at EFTA in 1988, Kleppe was assigned with the Fafo Foundation.

He was decorated with the Grand Cross of the Portuguese Order of Christ (1978), the Order of the Yugoslav Flag with Golden Star on Cravat (III rank) (1987), the Grand Cross of the Icelandic Order of the Falcon (1988), the Grand Cross of the Swedish Order of the Polar Star (1988), and the Grand Cross of the Order of the Lion of Finland (1988).

Kleppe died on 10 March 2021, aged 97.

Selected works

Autobiography.