Qiu Xiaohua has been removed as director of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) by the State Council, according to an official press release on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the State Council has appointed Xie Fuzhan as the NBS director and removed his deputy director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, it says.

Born in 1958, Qiu Xiaohua is a native of east China's Fujian Province. He graduated from the department of Economics of Xiamen University in Fujian in 1982.

Qiu was appointed NBS' deputy director in 1999. He served as chief economist and spokesman for NBS between 1993 and 1998.

He was appointed director of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) this March to replace Li Deshui.

(Xinhua News Agency October 13, 2006)