Paul Volcker, the Federal Reserve board chairman who vanquished the scourge of inflation that ravaged America’s prestige and power in the 1970s and early 1980s, has died at the age of 92.

A dedicated public servant and a towering figure in every sense — he stood 6ft 7in tall — Volcker served under presidents from John F Kennedy to Barack Obama. Throughout a career spanning more than six decades, his reputation for probity and dogged policymaking remained intact in the face of political storms.

Volcker came to epitomise the power of the independent central banker well before the phenomenon became fashionable under his successor Alan Greenspan. But he never lost his humility, regularly smoking cheap cheroots and travelling coach class on the shuttle from New York to Washington.