Xenophon Euthymiou Zolotas (Greek: Ξενοφών Ζολώτας; March 26, 1904 – June 11, 2004), an eminent Greek economist, served as an interim non-party Prime Minister of Greece.
Born in Athens in 1904, Zolotas studied economics at the University of Athens, and later studied in Leipzig and Paris. He was a scion of a wealthy family of goldsmiths with roots in pre-revolutionary Russia. In 1928 he became Professor of Economics at Athens University, a post he held until 1968, when he resigned in protest at the military regime which had come to power in 1967. He was a member of the Board of Directors of UNRRA in 1946 and held senior posts in the International Monetary Fund and other international organistions in 1946 and 1981.
Zolotas was governor of the Bank of Greece in 1944-1945, 1955-1967 (when he resigned in protest at the regime), and 1974-1981. He published many works on Greek and international economic topics. He was considered a moderate, a champion of fiscal conservatism and of monetary stability. He is also famous for demonstrating the contribution of Greek language to the English vocabulary by making English speeches, as he said, "using with the exception of articles and prepositions only Greek words", to foreign audiences (see external link below).
When the elections of November 1989 failed to give a majority to either the PASOK party of Andreas Papandreou or the New Democracy party of Constantine Mitsotakis, Zolotas, then aged 85, agreed to become Prime Minister at head of a non-party administration until fresh elections could be held. He resigned when the election of April 1990 gave Mitsotakis a narrow majority.
He was a workaholic and an avid winter swimmer, making a point of swimming every morning throughout the year even into his nineties.