Officials attending the ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting have shown confidence in the growth potential of the regional economy this year while urging for measures to safeguard against future obstacles.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kittiratt Na Ranong, who had led the Thai delegation to the city of Astana in Kazakhstan to participate in the 17th ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting, stated that the discussions were aimed to follow up on the economic conditions of both the ASEAN+3 region as a whole and each individual member country.

The attendants were informed that, from the beginning of 2014, economic slowdowns had been seen in some of the member nations and that most of them had been more reliant on exports due to the declining domestic spending and the recovery of the global economy compared to last year.

Nonetheless, the meeting reckoned that healthy expansions of the Chinese, Japanese and South Korean economies as well as improvements in the US and the EU would be the positive factors helping propel the ASEAN+3 economy forward.

Over the medium term, the meeting agreed that each member country should try to strengthen the economy by implementing an economic restructuring plan while adding more flexibility in the macroeconomic policy. It was also advised that more emphasis be placed on the importance of the regional financial safety net and the goal of inequality reduction through the use of financial tools.