Philippine Central Bank Chief Warns Asia to Guard Against a Repeat of the 1990s Financial Crisis
Asian countries must remind themselves of what happened during the region's financial crisis in the late 1990s and guard against a recurrence of such shocks, Philippine central bank Governor Eli Remolona said on Wednesday at an IMF panel on the outlook for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Bangkok.
Remolona noted that before the Asian financial crisis began in 1997, regional economies saw huge capital inflows that prompted the World Bank to describe the boom as the "East Asian miracle." "Investment poured into Asia, and then you had the crisis because it wasn't really a miracle. I think we have to remind ourselves about that. We have to guard against that kind of crisis," he said, adding that countries have "not really been making a lot of effort looking at that kind of crisis."
The remarks came at the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Bangkok, Thailand, an epicentre of the Asian financial crisis. Krishna Srinivasan, director of the IMF's Asia and Pacific Department, pushed back against the view, arguing that the IMF has made progress in assessing financial vulnerabilities and potential spillovers, and has developed a framework for how countries should deal with volatile capital flows, including when they should intervene in foreign exchange markets. Srinivasan also said ASEAN economies have weathered the trade tensions caused by US tariffs fairly well, though their energy intensity could be among the risks to the outlook, as some countries rely heavily on oil and gas imports.
Atsushi Mimura, Japan's vice finance minister for international affairs, cited the energy shock from the Middle East conflict and rising inflation as short-term risks to the region's outlook. He said fiscal support to cushion the blow to households and firms from the energy shock should be "triple T" — targeted, tailored and temporary. He added that ASEAN countries should focus on further strengthening investment to diversify supply chains in critical minerals and energy, a drive Japan was willing to support, and that all ASEAN countries should further invest to catch up with SI and innovation. The 11-member ASEAN bloc comprises Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：菲律宾央行行长埃利·雷莫洛纳官方肖像。摄影：Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas，公有领域，来源：Wikimedia Commons
