Fears of possible debt crisis haunt ADB meet

Yokohama

THIS year's Asian Development Bank annual meeting took place in Yokohama under the threat of a possible military emergency involving North Korea. But a different kind of threat - that from a huge overhang of corporate debt in Asia and elsewhere - cast shadows over the ADB meeting.

Senior government ministers including Japan's finance minister Taro Aso, Indonesian finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Philippine finance secretary Carlos Dominguez were among those to warn of the need for "vigilance" against a possible new debt crisis.

Finance ministers from Asean, plus those of Japan, China and South Korea, agreed to bolster the regional financial safety net by strengthening the S$240 billion regional monetary fund, the CMIM (Chiang Mai Initiative Multilat…