China has appointed Ma Delun and Yi Gang as vice governors of the central bank, amid a slew of high-level personnel changes following a key Communist Party congress.

The State Council decided on their promotions from assistant governors on Dec. 23, 2007, the central bank said Thursday in a statement posted on its Web site.

Vice governor Wu Xiaoling, 61, stepped down, it said.

Though of retirement age and out of the central bank's leadership, Wu wouldn't retire and would continue to hold some other important positions, governor Zhou Xiaochuan said.

Ma and Yi fill the vacancies left by Wu and Xiang Junbo, who had been appointed to head the state-owned Agricultural Bank of China in June 2007.

"The central bank's monetary policy will scarcely target asset prices" though it would keep a close watch on the stock and housing markets, Ma was quoted by the China Securities Journal as saying last year.

The 58-year-old had previously been the central bank spokesman and vice director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, China's foreign currency regulator.

Yi, 50, holds a doctorate in economics from the U.S. and had mainly worked in monetary policy departments of the central bank.

Yi described rising inflation, weak domestic demand, excess liquidity and massive trade surplus as China's "growing pains". He said last year that the central bank was resolute in fighting inflation and would change "the situation of negative interest rates" in a certain period of time.

The central bank currently has five vice governors, a discipline inspector and one assistant governor, according to its Web site.

(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2008)