China has replaced veteran reformer Lou Jiwei with a new finance minister who will be tasked with juggling fiscal stimulus and efforts to rein in excess leverage in the world's second-largest economy.
Xiao Jie, previously a senior aide to Premier Li Keqiang, will replace 65-year-old Lou, who has held the job for a little more than three years, according to an official Xinhua News Agency report. There was no news on what post, if any, Lou will go on to take.
Lou oversaw a restructuring of local-government finances that helped reduce the cost of a record amount of debt run up by provinces and cities that binged on spending after the global financial crisis. The Finance Ministry's top job now goes to a former head of the tax administration.