China Reshuffles PBOC Monetary Policy Panel

China reshuffled its central bank monetary policy committee, naming three new academic members and making Governor Yi Gang the 14-member panel’s chief, the cabinet said Friday.

The reshuffle was made as a result of leadership changes in the central bank and the Ministry of Finance since the annual congress meeting in March.

Yi replaced Zhou Xiaochuan, who stepped down in March as governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) after 15 years.

Vice Finance Minister Liu Wei replaced Shi Yaobin, the former vice finance minister, who was promoted in March to become the director of a budget committee of the congress.

Unlike the U.S. central bank’s policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee, whose voting members have the power to determine the direction of monetary policy, the Chinese central bank’s monetary policy committee plays only an advisory role. The panel meets quarterly to discuss economic and policy issues.

According to the PBOC’s rules, the panel is composed of the governor and two vice governors of the central bank, the head of the securities regulator, a vice minister of finance, governors of state-owned commercial banks and other top government officials as well as three academic members.

The three new academic members are government economist Liu Shijin, Renmin University President Liu Wei, and Ma Jun, former chief economist at the central bank who’s now a professor at Tsinghua University.

Liu Shijin, formerly the vice director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, is the vice chairman of the government think tank China Development Research Foundation.

Ma, formerly an economist at Deutsche Bank and the International Monetary Fund, specializes in research on yuan internationalization and financing channels for the “Belt and Road” initiative.

All three of the new academic members are winners of the Sun Yefang Economic Science Award, the top economics award in China.

The new academic members replace the influential Chinese economist Fan Gang, Peking University professor Huang Yiping and Tsinghua University professor Bai Chongen.

New Member Lineup of the Central Bank Monetary Policy Committee

Chairman

Yi Gang, Governor of the People's Bank of China

Members

Ding Xuedong, Deputy Secretary General of the State Council

Lian Weiliang, Deputy Director of the National Development and Reform Commission

Liu Wei, Vice Finance Minister

Chen Yulu, Deputy Governor of PBOC

Liu Guoqiang, Assistant Governor of PBOC

Ning Jizhe, Director of the National Bureau of Statistics

Guo Shuqing, Chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission

Liu Shiyu, Chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission

Pan Gongsheng, Administrator of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange

Tian Guoli, President of the China Banking Association

Liu Shijin, Vice-Chairman of China Development Research Foundation

Liu Wei, Renmin University President

Ma Jun, Director of the Center for Finance and Development, Tsinghua National Institute of Financial Research

Zhao Zuoyan contributed to the story