East Asian finance ministers confirmed Sunday that a strong economic recovery is under way in the region following the global financial crisis, while also agreeing to create an intergovernmental supervisory body to sustain the recovery amid various downside risks.
The East Asian economies are among the first to rebound soundly, the ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus Japan, China and South Korea said in a joint statement released after their one-day meeting in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The economies have become one of the key drivers of the global economic recovery. The talks came as Asian economies are recovering from the downturn caused by the financial turmoil relatively faster than U.S. and European economies.
But the ministers warned of some downside risks, including rising asset prices and growing inflationary pressures. Apparently taking lessons from the Greek debt crisis, they also expressed concern over ''sovereign debt risks precipitating renewed global risk aversion and destabilizing international capital flows in Asian economies.'' As for a possible unwinding of emergency policies, the ministers said that the Asian economies would ''adopt appropriate exit strategies, in accordance with our respective economic fundamentals.'' They agreed to set up the new supervisory body in Singapore by next year. The ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office will monitor and analyze regional economies in a way that helps to detect risks at an early stage and implement remedial actions.
via Asian finance ministers confirm solid recovery after crisis.
