Alan Greenspan, a prominent U.S. economist and chairman of America’s Federal Reserve for two decades, is dead.

He died at the age of 100.

Mr Greenspan’s demise was announced in a statement on Monday by his wife, Andrea Mitchell, the chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News.

“Alan passed away at our home this morning at the age of 100 from complications of Parkinson’s disease,” she said. “He was a giant of a man who helped shape the U.S. economy for decades under presidents of both parties, but was always honest in acknowledging his mistakes.”