China has appointed Ma Delun and Yi Gang as vice governors of
the central bank, amid a slew of high-level personnel changes
following a key Communist Party congress.
The State Council decided on their promotions from assistant
governors on Dec. 23, 2007, the central bank said Thursday in a
statement posted on its Web site.
Vice governor Wu Xiaoling, 61, stepped down, it said.
Though of retirement age and out of the central bank's
leadership, Wu wouldn't retire and would continue to hold some
other important positions, governor Zhou Xiaochuan said.
Ma and Yi fill the vacancies left by Wu and Xiang Junbo, who had
been appointed to head the state-owned Agricultural Bank of China
in June 2007.
"The central bank's monetary policy will scarcely target asset
prices" though it would keep a close watch on the stock and housing
markets, Ma was quoted by the China Securities Journal as saying
last year.
The 58-year-old had previously been the central bank spokesman
and vice director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange,
China's foreign currency regulator.
Yi, 50, holds a doctorate in economics from the U.S. and had
mainly worked in monetary policy departments of the central
bank.
Yi described rising inflation, weak domestic demand, excess
liquidity and massive trade surplus as China's "growing pains". He
said last year that the central bank was resolute in fighting
inflation and would change "the situation of negative interest
rates" in a certain period of time.
The central bank currently has five vice governors, a discipline
inspector and one assistant governor, according to its Web
site.
(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2008)