JAPAN'S
fiscal policy minister said yesterday the government wants to cooperate with
other Asian nations to minimise the possible impact of European debt crisis
contagion denting the region.
"We'd like to aggressively seek
cooperation with Asian partners, and expanding our currency swap deal with
Korea is a good example," Motohisa Furukawa, state minister of economic
and fiscal policy, said at a seminar in Tokyo.
South Korea and Japan agreed in October to
expand their currency swap arrangement to the equivalent of US$70 billion from
US$13 billion in the face of global uncertainty, and to revive efforts to reach
a free trade pact.
The deal was seen to help ease market
volatility as the deepening eurozone crisis plagues global markets.
Furukawa will visit Seoul this weekend to
discuss energy and economic issues with his Korean counterparts.
His comments come in the wake of assessments
from the Bank of Japan and the Japanese government over the threat to growth
posed by fallout from the eurozone debt crisis and slowing global demand.
Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa was
quoted by government officials as saying that Japan should prepare for possible
major shocks from Europe, at a meeting of economy-related ministers yesterday.
He noted "how to respond to large
tsunamis from overseas would be crucial" for the stability of the Japanese
economy, the officials cited him as saying.
On a visit to Japan earlier this month,
International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde warned:
"No country is immune to the current crisis."
She said the global nature of trade and
finance made them "conductors of crisis contagion" and that Japan
would be hit if its export destinations faced difficulties.
Market volatility stemming from the crisis has
buoyed demand for the safe-haven Japanese yen, whose strength also poses risks
to the economy.
Japan remains under domestic pressure to do
more to weaken the currency, which erodes repatriated profits of Japan's
exporters and makes their goods less competitive, forcing more firms to
consider moving production overseas.
AFP
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