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.