Asian ministers call for caution on prices

The finance ministers of Japan, China, South Korea and 10 Southeast Asian countries called for caution on Saturday over higher oil prices and interest rates but said a global economic recovery would help the region continue growing.
"We noted the potential impact of higher energy prices and interest rate movements on the global economy," they said in a joint statement after an annual meeting on the South Korean resort island of Cheju.
In an earlier draft, the ministers from the 13 countries, including the members of the Association of South East Asian Nations, had said that the potential impact of higher commodity prices and assets should be closely monitored.
The meeting, held alongside the Asian Development Bank's annual meeting, focused on rising oil prices, the spectre of higher US interest rates and the chances of a slowdown in China's economy, a Japanese finance ministry official said.
Oil prices rose to 21-year highs this week, fanning concerns about inflation and the need for higher interest rates around the world.
But the joint statement said ministers were reassured by the resilience of the Chinese economy, Beijing's proactive management of it, and firm recoveries in Japan and South Korea.
"Continued global recovery would further enhance growth prospects in our region this year," it said.
The Japanese finance ministry official also said the ministers had agreed that the impact of higher US interest rates on Asia would not be great, as the moves were expected to be gradual.
The ministers also called for stronger budget balances and improvement in the investment climate to ensure sustained growth, noting that growth in 2003 had been supported by easy interest rates and loose government budgets in many countries.
The ministers, produced no fresh plans or progress other than launching a Web site to spread information on bond markets in the region. They said a working group would review a four-year-old currency safety net designed to head of a re-run of the 1997/98 financial crisis that devastated the region.