Strength from swaps

Asian nations are becoming increasingly assertive in co-ordinating financial stability efforts in the Asia Pacific, notably via a raft of new swap agreements between the region's largest economies. Are these efforts having the desired impact? Christopher Jeffery reports

The global financial crisis has had a marked negative impact on a number of Asian economies. This is particularly the case in South Korea, where domestic banks and the branches of foreign banks have struggled to meet their short-term US dollar funding needs. It's also been the case in Indonesia, whose high fiscal deficit has undermined the country's financial status and banks have faced difficulty to meet corporate medium-term US dollar debt funding needs.

US dollar funding problems have