Southeast Asian Currency Woes Addressed

The foreign ministers of Southeast Asian nations blamed “well-coordinated efforts” for a series of speculative attacks that have pushed their currencies sharply lower in recent weeks. The ministers, attending a meeting of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, said “self-serving purposes” motivated the campaign to drive down their currencies. They did not identify the guilty parties by name. The foreign ministers took the unusual step of addressing monetary issues in their joint statement after their host, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, accused rich nations of deliberately weakening the region’s currencies to undermine its remarkable economic progress.