Press Release No. 15/141

Press Release: IMF and China's Ministry of Finance Sign Agreement on Strengthening Fiscal Institutions and Capacity Development

March 27, 2015

A new initiative launched this week marks an important milestone in the area of technical cooperation and training between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Chinese Ministry of Finance in support of a comprehensive package of reforms. These reforms, outlined by the Chinese authorities in 2013, aim at fundamentally modernizing Chinese fiscal institutions.

During her recent visit to China, Ms. Christine Lagarde, IMF Managing Director, and China’s Finance Minister Lou Jiwei signed a Memorandum of Understanding on March 23 to intensify the ongoing IMF support for China’s fiscal reforms.

The three-year agreement plans to increase cooperation to help strengthen China’s fiscal institutions and capacity in a number of areas, including in developing a medium-term expenditure framework, modernizing government accounting, strengthening local government finance, designing tax policy reforms, and identifying options for pension and health care reforms.