Yi Gang, the head of China’s central bank, is expected to resign after being expelled from an elite committee of the country’s Communist Party, according to sources close to the institution. A previous central banker is seen as the front-runner to follow him.
Yi, 64, has been the focus of significant speculation regarding his likely retirement in early 2023 as he approaches the formal retirement age limit of 65 for minister-level authorities. Like Zhou Xiaochuan, Yi’s predecessor, his term had been predicted to be extended by certain policy experts and consultants.
Yi is one of the reform-minded politicians who was not selected on Saturday to serve as a full or alternate member of the party’s new official Central Committee. Outgoing Premier Li Keqiang, age 67, Economic Czar Liu He, age 70, and the Central Bank’s Party Chief Guo Shuqing, age 66, were also left out.
One of the actions that solidified Xi Jinping’s ironclad grip on power and seemed to be consolidating authority among those close to Xi were the adjustments made after the twice-decade party congress.
A policy source revealed Yi’s exit appears inevitable. The party congress is almost over for the reform camp.
Yi served as a substitute on the prior Central Committee. He would almost certainly resign at the yearly parliament conference in March as a result of his absence from the new Central Committee lists, according to sources.
Requests for comment from the People’s Bank of China were not immediately fulfilled.
The impending reorganisation occurs as the PBOC tries to support the COVID-devastated economy without engaging in rash relaxation that would encourage capital flight, while the Federal Reserve as well as other central banks hike interest rates to combat skyrocketing inflation.
Privy information from central bank insiders stated Yin Yong, the deputy party chairman in Beijing’s capital city from 2016 to around 2018, is a front-runner to succeed Yi.
During the party conference, Yin, 53, who has a doctorate in engineering from the Tsinghua University as well as a master’s in public administration from the incredible Harvard University, was chosen as a full member of the well-sought Central Committee.
Yi Gang will probably be replaced by Yin Yong, according to an unnamed source close to the PBOC.
Given his status as a rising star and his experience working at the central bank, and the foreign currency regulator, and the Beijing government, other sources identified Yin as being well-positioned to succeed Yi.
One of the highest-ranking Chinese “sea turtles,” a phrase for Chinese who have returned from abroad, Yi has served as PBOC governor since 2018. He earned his economics doctorate from the University of Illinois.
In recent weeks, the PBOC has been making changes to its top management group. On Thursday, Xuan Changneng was appointed deputy governor of the central bank.
A cohort of reform-minded and determined policymakers are anticipated to leave their positions as China undergoes the most significant change in its economic leadership in ten years as growth prospects deteriorate.
Meanwhile, on the flip side of things in China, the National Health Commission stated on Sunday that China reported 998 confirmed COVID-19 infections on October 22, of which 207 were declared symptomatic and 791 were asymptomatic.
Comparatively, China records 215 symptomatic & 791 asymptomatic illnesses, totalling 1,006 new cases a day earlier.
The number of fatalities remained at 5,226 due to no new deaths, which is the same as the day before. On the Chinese mainland, 257,362 instances with symptoms have been confirmed as of Saturday.
According to local government data, the Chinese capital Beijing reported seven symptomatic instances and one asymptomatic case, down from 18 symptomatic and only one asymptomatic case the day before.
Financial hub Shanghai recorded no symptomatic with 12 asymptomatic cases, contrasted with no symptomatic & 16 asymptomatic cases a day earlier the local health authorities reported. Shenzhen, a powerhouse of technology in the south, reported 11 new domestically transmitted COVID illnesses, up from 10 the day before.
