The Ministry of Finance of the People's Republic of China () is the cabinet-level executive department of the State Council of China which administers macroeconomic policies and the annual budget. It also handles fiscal policy, economic regulations and government expenditure for the state.
The ministry also records and publishes annual macroeconomic data on China's economy. This includes information such as previous economic growth rates in China, central government debt and borrowing and many other indicators regarding the economy of Mainland China.
The Ministry of Finance's remit is smaller than its counterparts in many other states. Macroeconomic management is primarily handled by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). State-owned industries are the responsibility of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, and there are separate regulators for banking, insurance and securities. It also does not handle regulation of the money markets or interest rates. These, together with other aspects of monetary policy, are governed by the People's Bank of China (PBC), Mainland China's central bank. The Ministry, NDRC and PBC are equal in status, with their political heads all sitting on the State Council.
History
In 1969, during the Cultural Revolution, the State Council approved the consolidation of PBC's headquarters as a bureau within the Ministry of Finance. Local PBC branches were merged into local government finance departments. This effective demotion of the PBC lasted for a decade until August 1979, when the PBC was separated from the Ministry.
In 2009, the Ministry of Finance converted its ownership of $200 billion of China Investment Corporation's debt into equity, a result which relieved CIC of interest payments on the special treasury bonds that had initially capitalized it and instead resulted in CIC paying an annual dividend to the Ministry.
Role
The main functions of the Ministry of Finance is to carry out the following duties of the state:
Organizational structure
Organizational structure obtained from the Ministry of Finance website:
General Office
Policy & Programme Department
Legal Department
Tax Policy Department
Tariff Policy Department
Budget Department
Treasury Department
National Defense Department
Administrative & Law Enforcement Department
Education, Science & Culture Department
Economic Construction Department
Agriculture Department
Social Security Department
State Equity & Corporate Finance Department
Finance Department
International Department
Accounting Regulatory Department
Supervision Department
State Rural Development Office
Personnel & Education Department
Leadership
All of the leaders are members of the Ministry's Communist Party Committee, with Lan Fo'an as its secretary.
List of Finance Ministers
As shareholder
The MOF also acted as the controlling shareholder for a number of financial service companies of China, such as People's Insurance Company of China, China Life Insurance Group (parent of China Life), China Taiping Insurance Group (parent of China Taiping Insurance Holdings), etc. The Ministry also owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank of China, the Bank of Communications, China Great Wall Asset Management, China Cinda Asset Management, China Orient Asset Management, China Huarong Asset Management and China Re, etc.
MOF also owned China Railway, China Tobacco and CITIC Group.