Word: asia
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...With prices soaring over the past several months, however, doing nothing was not a realistic option. Policymakers must fight inflation now in hopes that they can get it under control quickly and promote growth again in the near future. Most central banks in Asia have started raising interest rates. The Reserve Bank of India increased its benchmark rate twice last month to a six-year high of 8.5%. Indonesia's central bank raised its rate for three consecutive months. Governments "have to keep expectations [about inflation] anchored," says Andrew Freris, senior investment strategist for Asia at BNP Paribas Private Banking...
...policy at the Confederation of Indian Industry. That problem has left some officials uncertain how to proceed, especially in countries such as Vietnam, which joined the World Trade Organization last year and has been opening up its economy to market forces. Vietnam suffers from the highest inflation in Asia; the country's Prime Minister, Nguyen Tan Dung, recently acknowledged during an interview with TIME that "promptly responding to adverse impacts of the global economy is a relatively new matter...
...course, inflation is not just a problem in Asia. World Bank President Robert Zoellick recently warned that the world was "entering a danger zone." He called rising food and oil prices a "man-made catastrophe" that could quickly reverse the gains made in overcoming poverty over the past seven years. For now, though, there is more talk than action on the international front, so Asian governments are battling on their own. There are some early signs that anti-inflation measures could pay off. After peaking at a 12-year high in February, inflation in China will begin to taper...
...Indeed, even though inflation throughout the region is likely to continue to rise in coming months, no one is expecting an economic calamity. "We don't believe that Asia will run into another financial crisis," says Park Cyn Young, senior economist at the Asian Development Bank in Manila. Asian countries have large hard-currency reserves and relatively healthy banks, and so are far better prepared to absorb external shocks than they were during the region's last recession 10 years ago. "This time, [Asian policymakers] have learned their lessons and will be more alert...
...that's not much comfort to those who were counting on Asia's boom to continue as uneventfully as it has over the past several years. Amit Kumar, a 22-year-old New Delhi resident, started a small building-materials business two years ago when India's capital was enjoying an unprecedented construction boom. But with interest payments on his bank loans mounting and customers dwindling, he closed up shop six months ago and started driving a taxi. The job is "beneath my status," Kumar complains, "but at least it keeps a roof above my head." If Asian governments...