March 18, 2012
East Asia may double size of currency volatility fund
Southeast Asian nations and Japan, South Korea and China may double the size of a facility created to help each nation fight currency volatility, the Wall Street Journal said on Monday, quoting an Association of Southeast Asian Nations official.
The group is considering increasing to $240 billion the funds that could be drawn through the Chiang Mai Initiative facility, which was created after the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, the newspaper quoted Aladdin Rillo, director and chief economist of the ASEAN integration monitoring office, as saying.
The move will be likely approved by deputy finance ministers and central bank governors of the group when they meet in Cambodia on March 28, it added. If agreed, it will be finalized during a meeting of finance ministers on the sidelines of the Asian Development Bank's annual meeting in May.
"Right now economic uncertainties have escalated,"
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