Wednesday, March 21, 2018

China's powerful central bank has a new leader


China's parliament confirmed Monday that deputy governor Yi Gang has been promoted to the top job at the People's Bank of China. He replaces veteran governor Zhou Xiaochuan, who is retiring after leading China's central bank for more than 15 years. Yi, a US-educated economist who speaks English fluently -- had been deputy governor of the central bank for the last decade. He begins his first five-year term at the central bank immediately. Analysts viewed Yi's promotion as a sign of continuity for the world's second-biggest economy. Zhou's governorship saw the size of China's economy increase exponentially as well as several big moves to open up the country to more foreign investment. China's central bank -- like the US Federal Reserve -- plays a key role in the smooth running of the country's economy. Its responsibilities include setting interest rates and regulating China's huge financial sector. One of Yi's big priorities will be getting China's enormous levels of debt under control as economic growth continues to cool. Growth is expected to come in at 6.5% this year, a few notches below the 6.9% rate seen in 2017. The Chinese economy faces other immediate threats. President Donald Trump's decision to impose tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum and the impending results of a probe into alleged Chinese theft of intellectual property have prompted fears of a trade war between the world's top two economies.

http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/19/news/economy/china-new-pboc-governor/index.html

4 comments:

Unknown said...

It will be interesting to see how Yi's leadership will impact relations between China and the US. Hopefully he will do his best to avoid a trade war with the US, as both countries have large levels of debt and would gain little from a trade war with each other.

Anonymous said...

Under the previous leadership, China's economy grew exponentially. Yi Gang has a US education and I wonder if this will give him an advantage to plan and bring reforms strategically in order to avoid a trade war.

Unknown said...

Although growth is anticipated to continue at a strong rate for China, arguably Gang will be a leader in a time of transition. China is going to be forced in the coming decade to evolve as a global leader and fill the void of their weakening long term internal growth as a country.

Anonymous said...

I agree w. Jake. I know that Yi is very educated and I am sure he will bring in his knowledge and his experiences and will do his best to avoid the trade war.