Masahiro Kawai Quotations

The possibility of a US dollar collapse or sharp decline may be small at this point but it would generate very significant turmoil so East Asian economies... ought to be ready for that.

We have a plan to create several indexes, but we want to make these indexes as attractive as possible to the market.

Our suggestion to Asian countries is: Don't take this continuous financing of the U.S. current account deficit as a given.

Experience in many countries tells us that by accumulating foreign exchange reserves, eventually the monetary policy consequences could be big.

We are suggesting greater exchange rate flexibility for certain countries which are accumulating larger amounts of foreign reserves.

Bond markets are deepening worldwide, but emerging East Asia is moving ahead at a faster rate.

Perhaps China is accumulating too much foreign exchange reserves.

Perhaps a single currency may come after that.

Any shock hitting the US economy or the global market may change investors' perceptions given the existing global current account imbalance.

Asian governments, central banks and the private sector will have to focus more on bond market development and really strengthen market infrastructure.

There's been significant progress, but that progress is not quite enough.

Allowing a little more currency appreciation can be quite desirable for the sake of the Chinese economy and the region as a whole. The Chinese economy is quite resilient. At the same time, foreign exchange reserves are rising fast.

The individual exchange rates won't be supported officially...but if this index is relatively stable vis-a-vis external currencies then it's quite useful.

The market is still growing. But the growth rate in 2005 moderated a little bit from the previous year's growth.