The Chinese government has fired their minister of finance, Lou Jiwei. Xiao Jie, a long time bureaucrat from China’s Ministry of Finance, has replaced the globally renowned finance minister Lou Jiwei.
The move comes as global concerns grow about China’s economic slowdown. Beijing for some time now has been trying to rebalance the economy, and drive growth through domestic consumption with less reliance on the old pillars of the economy: manufacturing, exports and debt.
But so far, report says it doesn’t seem to be working well. China’s economy grew at an annual rate of 6.7% in each of the first three quarters of 2016, the slowest rate in a quarter of a century. In fact China has increasingly had to depend on some of those old pillars to keep growth going.
But what many China observers are saying is that President Xi is consolidating his power ahead of next year’s party congress – and while he does that, his focus on reforming the economy may not be topmost on his mind
According to a source, Lou is a familiar face in the international investment community and was well respected, so his departure will be viewed as a loss. (Tv360Nigeria)
