Asian nations will form a $120bn pool of forex reserves that can be used by countries to defend their currencies in an expansion of efforts to battle fallout from the global financial crisis, reports Bloomberg. Finance ministers from Japan, China, South Korea and 10 Southeast Asian nations agreed to the fund at a weekend summit in Phuket, Thailand. The amount is 50% more than was proposed last May, and a broadening of the current arrangement called the Chiang Mai Initiative that allows only bilateral currency swaps. No date was set for completion of the new pool.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Monday, February 23rd, 2009 at 4:37 and is filed under Capital markets. Edit this entry.