APEC ministers to discuss exchange rates
APEC ministers to discuss exchange rates
FUKUOKA, Japan (AFP): Finance ministers from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum will discuss exchange-rate fluctuations at a meeting in Indonesia in April, senior APEC officials said yesterday.
In a summary of their three-day meeting here, the officials said they "looked forward" to a report on the outcome of the Bali meeting from the group's newly-formed economic committee chaired by Canada.
The senior APEC officials "would then consider the matter further, taking into account the need to see the effects of exchange rate fluctuations on trade and investment in the region," the summary said.
Several Asian currencies came under heavy selling pressure last month following the Mexican peso's collapse, prompting an unprecedented meeting of regional banking officials in Hong Kong.
Senior representatives of the central banks and monetary authorities of Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Hong Kong met in the British colony on January 28 to discuss the speculative activity in their currencies.
Among the hardest hit were the Thai baht, the Indonesian rupiah, the Philippine peso and the Hong Kong dollar. The Malaysian ringgit and the Singapore dollar also fell but were less affected by the regional sell off, largely attributed to panicky westerners growing cool towards emerging markets.
The Bali meeting will be only the second gathering of APEC finance ministers. The first, held in Hawaii in March last year, was devoted to sustaining growth with low inflation, financing investment and infrastructure development and promoting capital market development.
A joint statement issued by the finance ministers made no mention of exchange rates.
But foreign ministers and trade ministers from the 18-member group, meeting in Jakarta in November, told the new economic committee to study the impact of excessive currency swings on trade and investment.
The economic committee, upgraded from an ad-hoc group in November, is headed by John Curtis, senior policy advisor at Canada's department of foreign affairs and international trade. The vice chairmen are officials from Taiwan and Thailand.
APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States.