Citi has appointed Shuang Ding, a former economist at China’s central bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as senior China economist.
This is the American bank’s second senior appointment for its China research coverage in less than a year as the firm continues to strengthen research of the world’s fastest growing economy. Last April, Citi appointed Minggao Shen, a veteran China observer, to serve as head of China research.
Ding will be based in Hong Kong and lead the China macroeconomics research team. He will report to Shen.
Both Ding and Shen are from mainland China and have worked for the nation’s top financial and economic research institutions. Veteran mainland-born and Western-educated economists and bankers have become global banks’ preferred candidates. Foreign firms hope the seasoned China observers will help predicate and interpret Beijing’s economic policies, which are increasingly critical to investment decisions.
“China continues to be a key market for global institutional investors and Ding’s appointment is consistent with our focus on investing in our research platform to help our regional and global clients who are increasingly looking to invest in Asian equities given the region’s growth prospects,” said Shen in a statement.
Ding served at the international division of People’s Bank of China from 1993 to 1997.
He joins Citi's Asia economics team from the IMF where he was most recently the senior economist working on crisis management in the European department, including the development and review of the IMF’s lending programmes.
In his more than nine years with the IMF, he has accumulated extensive country experience by working on macroeconomic issues in low-income and emerging economies, ranging from monetary and financial stability to exchange rate assessments.
Ding holds a master degree from the graduate school of China’s central bank as well as an MBA from Johns Hopkins University.
Meanwhile, Shen has 11 years of experience working for China’s top policy research firm and in academia. He has an MA in international development policy and a PhD in economics from Stanford University.
