PBoC’s Du promoted to deputy governor: reports

The People's Bank of China (PBoC) has promoted Du Jinfu, one of its three assistant governors, to deputy governor, leading media reported on Thursday.

Bloomberg and Dow Jones, two wire news services, said Du had been promoted to fill the space created by the retirement of Su Ning, one of the central bank's five deputy governors. The date of the appointment is not known, but an official at the PBoC reportedly told Dow Jones Newswires that Su had left the central bank.

Su crossed the state retirement age of 60 for men three years ago. Su joined the central bank as deputy governor in 2003, having spent five years as vice-chairman of the National People's Congress's (NPC) Budget Committee. The NPC is China's highest executive body.

Of the central bank's four other deputy governors, Ma Delun, who was appointed to the post in December 2007, has also exceeded the public sector retirement age, by one year, prompting speculation that another replacement could be announced.

Du, who holds a doctorate in economics from the Graduate School of the People's Bank of China in Beijing, is a career central banker. He joined the PBoC as the director of its Finance Research Institute in Inner Mongolia in 1992, and was promoted to deputy director-general of it's department of statistics seven years later. In 2003, he became the director-general of the central bank's human resources department, before being made an assistant governor in July 2006.