ASEAN regional currencies

ASEAN regional currencies

MANILA (AFP): Intra-ASEAN trade using regional currencies will start only after the battered units have stabilized against the U.S. dollar, President Fidel Ramos said yesterday.

Ramos said the mechanics of the scheme were being hammered out by finance ministers and monetary authorities of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The results of such meetings will be discussed by ASEAN leaders through consultations "without having to meet in one place together," he said.

Leaders of ASEAN, comprising Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, have agreed to increasingly use regional currencies in settling trade transactions to reduce reliance on the dollar amid the regional financial turmoil.

Southeast Asian currencies, especially the Indonesian rupiah, Thai baht, Malaysian ringgit, and the Philippine peso, have drastically depreciated against the greenback since the crisis began in July 1997.