Japan - ASEAN expand currency swap pact

Japan - ASEAN expand currency swap pact


Japan and Southeast Asian countries are negotiating the expansion of currency swap agreements in order to help their economies in times of emergency , an official said ahead of a meeting next week , AFP reported .

Swap is a useful mechanism when depressed economy when normal money market is also depressed , by way of financial authorities to buy the local currency with more liquid currencies are usually the U.S. dollar .

Tokyo was negotiating with five countries - Indonesia , Philippines , Malaysia , Thailand , and Singapore - to expand or continue the bilateral currency swap , said a Japanese finance ministry official told AFP .

Since the Asian currency crisis in the late 1990s , Japan redouble efforts to build a multilateral currency swap agreement called the Chiang Mai Initiative ( CMI ) was .

" We are in talks with the view that the bilateral agreement sooner rather than policy -making within the framework of a multilateral framework , " said the official .

Japan is currently bound by a bilateral swap agreement worth 12 billion dollars to Indonesia and $ 6 billion to the Philippines , but that number will be increased in the middle of trying to desires Tokyo resume bilateral agreements with three other ASEAN countries , said the official was quoted as saying by AFP .