Manila renews call for single currency in ASEAN

Manila renews call for single currency in ASEAN

MANILA (DPA): Philippine President Joseph Estrada on Saturday renewed a call for Southeast Asian countries to establish a single currency to facilitate trade and investments in the region, a government statement said.

Estrada, who was interviewed by CNN while on an eight-day visit to the United States, said a common currency would further strengthen the status of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a "potent economic force".

"Europe was united on the formula of a single currency," he said. "I think that we also have to study that, someday we will have a single currency within the region to facilitate trade among our member economies."

ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar (Burma) and Cambodia. Estrada first suggested a common currency for ASEAN at the height of the financial crisis in mid-1997.

In the CNN interview, Estrada stressed that improved cooperation among ASEAN members was necessary to prevent and effectively deal with similar economic shocks in the future.

Regional currencies have been depreciating anew in the past months, which Philippine monetary officials have blamed on "political uncertainties" in Indonesia and the rise in interest rates in the United States.

The peso on Thursday plunged to a 31-month low, averaging 45.028 to one U.S. dollar. It recovered on Friday to an average of 44.941 to the dollar.

Despite the weakening peso, Estrada expressed optimism that the Philippine economy will completely recover from the 1997 financial crisis. He also pledged to continue implementing investor-friendly reforms to keep the economy on the path of sustainable growth.