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Joint statement by central banks
Governors and senior officials from the central banks and monetary authorities of Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines and Thailand met informally in Hong Kong today (Monday) to review developments in the financial markets and to examine the opportunities for further co- operation among central banks.
The meeting was hosted by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority to follow up a meeting held on January 21, 1995 in Hong Kong among some central banks to exchange views on currency speculation in the region, and following on discussions on monetary co-operation amongst ASEAN central banks in recent years.
The economies represented at today's meeting have a combined GNP of US$7,368 billion and foreign exchange reserves of US$403 billion. In light of the growing inter-dependence in trade and investment among these economies and the globalisation of financial markets, the meeting reaffirmed the importance for the central banks to enhance co-operation to maintain currency stability and improve the integrity and stability of the banking system.
The meeting discussed ways to improve co-operation amongst the central banks to deal with volatile capital flows. It agreed that one useful form of co-operation was the exchange of information and liquidity enhancement in the form of bilateral repurchase (repo) agreement between central banks.
On this occasion, the central banks from Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand signed among themselves bilateral memoranda of understanding on the repo of US dollar government securities to provide liquidity on a bilateral basis. Other central banks also discussed and will explore the possibilities of entering into such liquidity agreements.
Governors and senior officials of the central banks of China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and the Philippines also attended the signing ceremony,
End/Monday, November 20, 1995
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