Asian Nations Form Forex Bloc
The leaders of 13 Asian nations recently agreed to pool part of their combined $2.7 Trillion in forex reserves to create a safety net of sorts, which would protect any and all of the member countries in the event of a currency crisis. The move stems from the 1997 Southeast Asian economic crisis, in which several Asian economies summarily devalued their currencies and were forced to enter into burdensome agreements with the International Monetary Fund. The bloc also announced that it would continue preliminary discussions over the possibility of a common Asian currency. However, this is probably still at least a decade from coming to fruition. Xinhua reports:
“A relatively modest proposal for a currency index comprising a weighted basket of regional currencies has been bogged down in wrangling.” Officials from the ADB now agree the proposal of a single currency is "many decades from being viable."
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