Governor, People's Bank of China Xiaochuan Zhou of China
In places which use the Wade-Giles romanization such as Taiwan, Zhou is usually spelled as "Chou", and it may also be spelled "Chiau", "Chow", "Chu", "Jhou", "Joe", "Jou", "Jue", or "Jow.
Zhou is associated with Zhu Rongji and the Shanghai clique of politicians.
Before the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, Zhou was an associate and protege of Zhao Ziyang.
From 2000 to 2002, Zhou was head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission.
As leading banking authority, Zhou is in charge of clearing up some $865 billion bad loans in the Chinese banking system.
Later on, in 2005 Zhou joined the influential Washington-based financial advisory body, the Group of Thirty.
Zhou has published a dozen monographs and over one hundred academic articles in Chinese and international journals.
To that end, Zhou has had a preference for recruiting overseas educated and trained Chinese (locally called "sea turtles"), who have experience of real capitalist markets.
Zhou has been suggested as a future premier, but some consider that he does not have the political experience.
Speaking at the 14th meeting of International Monetary and Financial Committee of the Board of Governors of IMF held Sunday, Zhou said that the global economy is expected to remain robust growth in 2007, but there are downside risks, including the high oil and raw material prices, high pressure of inflation.
Zhou came to speak on April 26th at the Banks ongoing Practitioners in Development Lecture Series.
Zhou said his talk would compare Chinas transition with other emerging market economies.
A key question is how to solve nonperformance loans (NPLs), and Zhou said the reforms provided the growth generation necessary to produce the fiscal resources to address this important issue.
Zhou said excessive US consumption and over-reliance on debt were key reasons for the crisis, and he urged the United States to raise its savings rate and reduce its budget and trade deficits.
In his speech Zhou makes a reference to a classic text much loved by assorted Minskyites (and others), Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, and as an aside, I would note that in my experience an awful lot of people who study financial history tend towards Minskyite views, but I don’t think Zhou is one of the crowd.
Although I think some of the things Zhou says in his speech suggest that his model of crises has lots of overlap with Minsky, I think overall his view is closer to the consensus economics views that suggest that financial crises occur because of macroeconomic mismanagement, and as such they “mirror” problems in the underlying economy.
Bank for International Settlements.
developments in the second half of the year.
requirements for commercial banks.
financial leaders over the yuan's exchange rate.
he could not be specific about the makeup.
As PBOC chief, Zhou has taken strong steps towards creating a real Chinese bond market.
Zhou says he wants to encourage big corporations with sound profitability to issue corporate bonds first.
Whether they will or not depends on the extent to which China is able to develop what Zhou has called a financial markets culture.
Zhou has previously pointed out that numerous problems remain in developing a corporate bond market, ones for which there might be no easy solutions.
But eventually, we will open the domestic bond market to foreign investors, foreign issuers and foreign financial service providers such as credit rating agencies, Zhou said in a speech last November.
Zhou is under enormous international pressure to orchestrate a steady appreciation of the yuan versus the dollar, while at the same time managing an underdeveloped financial system in an economy plagued by overcapacity and falling prices With growing signs that China's real estate boom (especially around Shanghai) is coming to end, he must also continue reforms to keep bad loans from ballooning at the staterun banks.
Zhou has responsibility fora financial system that is riddled with numerous structural problems and inconsistencies.
Mr Zhou is Governor of The People’s Bank of China.
the Lujiazui Financial Forum in Shanghai today.
Forex reserve should be denominated in a number of currencies (instead of the US dollar alone) and comprise diversified products in a bid to award off risks, Zhou said in reply to a German reporter's question on whether China would hold more euro-denominated assets.
On other issues, Zhou said Beijing has yet to reach a consensus over how to develop a properly functioning domestic bond market.
articles in Chinese and international journals.
The central bank aims to "speed up the drive to reform the finance industry", Zhou said in a New Year speech posted on the People's Bank of China Web site.
The move suggests that Zhou is gaining influence with policy makers.
Two days after the central bank announced the yuan appreciation, Zhou was advocating more.
other currencies include the euro, yen, South Korean won, Singapore dollar, British pound, Malaysian ringgit, Australian dollar, Russian ruble, Thai baht and Canadian dollar, Zhou said Aug 10.
Zhou was very diplomatic in his remarks, never mentioning the United States or American officials at all and volunteering several times that he was simply providing information and not expressing personal opinions.
Zhou denied this, saying that the central bank could still stabilize the domestic economy and money supply through administrative methods, like discouraging banks from lending to speculative projects, and by requiring domestic banks to deposit more of their assets with the central bank instead of lending them out.
Zhou expressed irritation several times at recent signs that speculators, especially Chinese companies and citizens who used to send money secretly out of the country, are now bringing foreign currency back into the country and converting it into yuan in the hope of a quick profit if the central bank allows the currency to appreciate.
would be most effective, but he declined to be drawn further.
requirements over Chinas listed companies.