China’s Li Bo Named Deputy Managing Director of IMF

What’s new: China’s Li Bo was named deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), filling a vacancy left by the departure in July of Zhang Tao at the end of a five-year term.

Li, 48, will be responsible for the IMF’s work in 90 countries as well as on a wide range of policy issues. The financial industry veteran was most recently deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the latest in a series of positions over 14 years at the central bank.

He left the PBOC in 2018 and the following year was named vice mayor of Chongqing municipality amid a wave of appointments of financiers and financial regulatory officials to senior local government positions. Li rejoined the PBOC in April as deputy governor.

The background: The IMF is conducting its latest round of reviews of quotas of member countries. The quotas reflect each country’s relative position in the world economy and are denominated by Special Drawing Rights, an international reserve asset launched by the IMF in the late 1960s to supplement member countries’ official reserves. The 16th review, set to be completed by the end of 2023, would be likely to result in an increase in quota shares for emerging market and developing countries, according to the IMF.

With 190 member countries, the IMF works to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty.

Han Wei, Timmy Shen and Luo Meihan contributed to this report.

Quick Takes are condensed versions of China-related stories for fast news you can use.

Contact reporter Denise Jia (huijuanjia@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com)

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