ASEAN Shares Crude Oil Supply Concerns With Japan, China, South Korea
SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan May 4 (Bernama-Kyodo) -- The finance chiefs of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus Japan, China and South Korea shared their concerns Sunday about crude oil supplies amid the West Asia conflict, agreeing to unite further in addressing shared challenges, Kyodo News Agency reported.
"The escalation of conflict in the West Asia has amplified downside risks to the regional outlook significantly," the finance ministers and central bank governors said in a statement adopted at their talks on the sidelines of the Asian Development Bank's annual meeting in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
The representatives of the ASEAN-plus-three countries said they "remain attentive to risks stemming from excessive volatility and disorderly movements in financial markets" and "stand ready to respond" in line with domestic conditions, the statement said.
The ADB's four-day meeting from Sunday came with many Asian nations that are heavily reliant on oil imports from the West Asia hit by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran following US-Israeli attacks.
Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama, who cochaired the meeting along with the Bank of Japan's Deputy Governor Ryozo Himino and representatives from the Philippines, said the countries agreed on the need for regional cooperation and vowed to help each other in diversifying supply chains.
In mid-April, Japan pledged a US$10 billion financial package for other Asian countries aimed at improving energy supply chains. The initiative centres on providing loans to help countries procure crude oil and petroleum products.
The joint statement also underscored "the importance of upholding multilateralism" and reaffirmed "support for a rules-based, non-discriminatory, free, fair, open, inclusive, equitable, and transparent multilateral trading system."
China, which opted not to send a ministerial-level official to the conference, has been boosting its crude oil imports from Russia, Indonesia and Brazil, while restricting its exports.
Critics say the massive oil purchases and export controls of the economic powerhouse could impact global supply.
The document said the finance chiefs "stand ready" to respond to volatile foreign exchange movements, after Japanese authorities, according to government sources, intervened in the currency market on Thursday following the yen's rapid fall to the upper 160 range against the US dollar.
Katayama and the country's top currency official, Atsushi Mimura, had stepped up verbal warnings of a possible intervention as the yen weakened against the dollar, which attracts buying as a safer currency at times of crisis.
The yen was also weakened by the BOJ's decision at its meeting in late April to leave its policy rate unchanged as it assesses the impact of the West Asia crisis.
In the joint statement, the participants warned that if the West Asia conflict is prolonged, "the shock could become broader and more persistent," extending beyond energy markets to industrial inputs, logistics, food prices and tourism.
Ahead of the annual meeting, the ADB revised down its growth forecasts for developing Asia and the Pacific to 4.7 per cent this year and 4.8 per cent in 2027 as energy markets are expected to remain disrupted by the conflict in the West Asia.
The Manila-based lender also raised its inflation forecasts to 5.2 per cent in 2026 and 4.1 per cent the following year, from its April 10 forecasts of 3.6 per cent and 3.4 percent, respectively.
Meetings of the ASEAN-plus-three finance ministers began in 1999, following the 1997 financial crisis that raised the need for financial safety nets. Central bank governors joined the framework from 2012.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
-- BERNAMA-KYODO
