Myanmar has introduced a new law to overhaul its central bank, the presidential office said today, in the latest reform aimed at burnishing the country's economic credentials.
Details of the new legislation have not yet been published but officials say the central bank will have more autonomy and will no longer operate as part of the finance ministry.
"The significant thing is that the central bank will be an independent body," a central bank official who did not want to be named told AFP earlier this week.
A presidential office spokesman said that President Thein Sein had signed the law on Thursday following parliamentary approval several days ago but was unable to give more details.
The main role of the Central Bank of Myanmar up to now, experts say, has been to print money to fund the government's budget deficit.
Myanmar's quasi-civilian government has announced a series of political and economic reforms since coming to power in 2011 after the end of nearly half a century of military rule.
Last year it revamped Myanmar's complex foreign exchange system in a bid to facilitate trade and investment.
Foreign companies are flocking to the former pariah state following the lifting of most Western sanctions.
