Youssef Raouf Boutros-Ghali or YBG (; born 20 August 1952) is an Egyptian economist who served in the government of Egypt as Minister of Finance from 2004 to 2011. He was succeeded by Samir Radwan on 31 January 2011. Education Youssef Boutros-Ghali earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics at Cairo University in 1974. He then earned a Doctor of Philosophy in economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981. He was also a lecturer and research assistant during his stay at MIT. Career Upon graduation, Boutros-Ghali joined the International Monetary Fund as an EP (Economist Program). He became Senior Economist. He worked in both area and functional departments: first in the Middle East Department (MED) and later in Policy and Development Review (PDR) on Asian, Latin American and Middle Eastern countries. He gained profound knowledge of the economic problems and policy challenges of countries as diverse as the Sudan, Ivory Coast, the Philippines, China, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico. He also did background work on the Latin American debt crisis of the early 1980s. After leaving the Fund in 1986, Boutros-Ghali was appointed as Economic Advisor to Egypt's Prime Minister and to the Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (1986–1993), where he took a prominent role in negotiating the 1987 and 1991 stand-by arrangements with the Fund and the debt rescheduling agreements with the Paris Club. The reform programs initiated then ushered a turnaround in the Egyptian economy and laid the groundwork for economic reforms that are being pursued to this day. Thereafter, Boutros-Ghali was appointed Minister of State for the Council of Ministers and Minister for International Cooperation (1993–1996), where he continued to be active in overseeing program relationship between Egypt and the Fund. He was subsequently named Minister of State for Economic Affairs (1996–1997). Thereafter he assumed the position of Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade (1997–2001), and later Minister of Foreign Trade (2001–2004). A firm advocate of trade liberalization, as Minister of Foreign Trade, Boutros-Ghali participated in the Seattle, Doha and Cancun ministerial meetings of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and played a prominent role in launching the Doha round. He was also instrumental in concluding the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership Agreement between Egypt and the European Union in 1998. In 1999 he led the negotiations with the COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) a free trade agreement of some twenty east and