Leading Asian countries have taken a further step towards cooperation and self-protection against the global economic crisis by expanding the size and scope of their foreign exchange pooling arrangements.
At a summit held on Sunday in Phuket, Thailand, finance ministers from China, Japan, South Korea and the 10 Asean states agreed to create a $120 billion foreign exchange reserve fund that can be used by the members to defend their currencies from speculative attacks, and also to provide them with emergency short-term financing.
The size of the pool is 50% larger than the $80 billion planned in May, and the scheme is also a widening of the so-called Chiang Mai Initiative, which was launched...
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