Asian central banks called on Saturday for a new framework to regulate global financial markets as the world grapples with the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Central bankers from 15 Asian countries also called for exit strategies to be put in place to ensure that temporary measures that have been put in place in response to the global economic crisis did not become permanent.
"The concern was raised that policy measures in some advanced economies may potentially restrict financial flows to emerging economies," the central banks said in a statement after a two-day meeting in Kuala Lumpur. The South East Asian Central Banks grouping said it backed calls for a doubling of the International Monetary Fund's resources to $520 billion in order to help it cope with the financial crisis and called for deeper regional co-operation.
Many of South East Asia's economies have been insulated from the global financial crisis due to their high foreign currency reserves and a strengthening of their banking sectors in the wake of the 1998 Asian crisis, although export dependent economies like Malaysia are seeing growth forecasts slashed. The body groups Brunei, Fiji, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
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