Financial chiefs from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus Japan, China and South Korea have agreed on the need to promote structural reforms in a bid to promote economic growth, and to be vigilant against risks arising from large capital outflows.
Meeting on the fringes of the Asian Development Bank annual meeting in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, the finance ministers and central bank governors said in a joint statement Sunday that this year their economies will likely sustain the same relatively high growth of the previous year.
While reaffirming their commitment to "carrying out the necessary structural adjustments," they sounded the alarm about the possibility of a sharp run-up in oil prices and capital outflows amid the changing global economic environment.