Rolf Kullberg was the governor of the Bank of Finland

Bank of Finland

The Bank of Finland is the central bank of Finland. It is the fourth oldest central bank in the world.-History:The Bank of Finland was established on 1 March in 1812 in the city of Turku by Alexander I of Russia. In 1819 it was relocated to Helsinki...

 from 1983 to 1992. He was a member of the board since 1974. Before that he worked in the ministry of finance and in a private bank.

At the end of his term as a governor Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 experienced its worst recession

Recession

In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction, a general slowdown in economic activity. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way...

. Before the recession there was a long period of growth and it was easy to borrow money. Kullberg was one of the first persons to publicly warn about the possible risks. He warned that people and companies are borrowing more than they can afford.

During those hard times the main goal of the Bank of Finland was to maintain stable currency rate. Kullberg tied the currency rate of Finland's Markka to ECU

European Currency Unit

The European Currency Unit was a basket of the currencies of the European Community member states, used as the unit of account of the European Community before being replaced by the euro on 1 January 1999, at parity. The ECU itself replaced the European Unit of Account, also at parity, on 13...

 currency in 1991 in order to gain more stability. But finally Finland was forced to devaluate

Devaluation

Devaluation is a reduction in the value of a currency with respect to those goods, services or other monetary units with which that currency can be exchanged....

 and eventually let its currency float

Floating exchange rate

A floating exchange rate or fluctuating exchange rate is a type of exchange rate regime wherein a currency's value is allowed to fluctuate according to the foreign exchange market. A currency that uses a floating exchange rate is known as a floating currency....

 in 1992. This was a serious setback to Kullberg and he wanted to resign from his post. However, the president of Finland Mauno Koivisto

Mauno Koivisto

Mauno Henrik Koivisto is a Finnish politician who served as the ninth President of Finland from 1982 to 1994. He also served as Prime Minister 1968–1970 and 1979–1982...

 asked him to continue. In the April 1992 he made an early retirement after publicly disagreeing with the prime minister Esko Aho

Esko Aho

Esko Tapani Aho is a statesman and former Prime Minister of Finland.-Early life and career:Aho was born in Veteli, Finland. Prior to attending university, he began a career in politics. From 1974 to 1979, he was Chairman of the Finnish Centre Youth, which had before him grown many of his...

about financial politics.

He died 3 September 2007 at the age of 76 after a serious illness.