Thailand urges joint front against money speculators
Thailand urges joint front against money speculators
BANGKOK (AFP): Beleaguered Thailand urged Southeast Asian neighbors yesterday to close ranks against currency speculators at next week's global monetary talks as turmoil assails regional financial markets.
The call came as senior officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) held talks here ahead of Friday's inaugural meeting of finance ministers from Asia and Europe which will focus on the currency crisis.
"Yes, I would like to see that," Thai Finance Minister Thanong Bidaya told reporters when asked whether ASEAN would adopt a joint front against speculators at the IMF-World Bank talks in Hong Kong.
Thanong said Bangkok realized that market forces had to be "respected" in an era of increasing financial sector liberalization, but said ways should be found to curb rampant speculation and stabilize battered regional currencies.
"It is quite important that somehow... some mechanics and techniques should be devised to stabilize the movements of all these currencies," Thanong said.
He did not say what specific measures Thailand wanted to see adopted to curb speculators who laid siege on regional currencies after the central Bank of Thailand floated the baht on July 2.
Analysts say ASEAN is expected to urge the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank at the Hong Kong meeting to devise ways of curbing largely U.S.-based offshore hedge funds who led the attack.
Thailand floated the baht in an effective devaluation, abandoning its exorbitant defense of the currency with its economy in deep crisis under the weight of billions of dollars in bad debt run up by the finance sector.
Southeast Asian financial markets have since gone into a tailspin, with the Malaysian ringgit, the Indonesian rupiah and the Philippine peso hitting record lows while even the normally robust Singapore dollar has not been spared by currency speculators.
Stock prices have fallen sharply with foreign investors fleeing the region.
Senior officials Thursday agreed to pursue efforts to institute an ASEAN currency swap arrangement that would come to the aid of partners in need of liquidity at times of crisis, delegates said.
Supachai Phistvanich, permanent secretary at the Thai ministry of finance, said Brunei and Vietnam were not yet ready to join such an arrangement but would study the proposal.
Supachai said the ASEAN senior officials' meeting discussed the currency crisis, but refused to reveal substantive details which he said were a "secret."
He said finance ministers from the regional grouping would meet in Kuala Lumpur on December 2-3 in the run-up to an informal summit to be hosted by the Malaysian capital to discuss developments in the financial sector.
The meeting was reportedly proposed by Malaysia to discuss concrete cooperation in the fight against what it has called financial market "manipulation."
Thanong was due to meet with finance ministers from six other ASEAN member-states for informal talks yesterday ahead of an Asia-Europe meeting (ASEM) on financial sector cooperation.
Senior officials from the seven ASEAN members -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- were holding preparatory talks here Thursday afternoon. ASEAN also groups Myanmar and Laos, which are not a part of the ASEM dialogue.
Thanong, who will chair the Asia-Europe finance ministers' meeting, said delegates from the two continents would aim for "constructive consultations" on ways to stabilize Southeast Asian financial markets.