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NYTimes.com Friday, January 16, 2009 Business

Oscar Anibal Ayala, 71, an Economist

Published: July 13, 1998 Oscar Anibal Ayala, an economist who helped start the Inter-American Development Bank in 1959, died on June 22 at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington. Mr. Ayala, who was born in Paraguay and lived in Alexandria, Va., for more than 40 years, was 71.

The cause of death was pancreatic cancer, said Nivea N. Ayala, his wife.

Mr. Ayala was the first to serve as Under Secretary at the Inter-American Development Bank, which arranges development loans for member governments and for private investment and advises members on financial issues. The bank was started by the United States and 18 Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Mr. Ayala left the bank in 1986 to become a financial consultant.

Before 1959, he worked as an economist and census director in Paraguay and studied at the American University in Washington, where he received master's and doctoral degrees in economics.

He immigrated to the United States in 1955.

Mr. Ayala is survived by his wife, of Alexandria, and a daughter, Maria Mercedes Ayala of New York.