Asia emancipates itself from the IMF

More independence from the West through more regional financial aid – since last week, the changes that have been planned for a year within the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM), part of the Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI), have been in force. This is a multilateral currency swap arrangement signed by the ten ASEAN countries plus the People’s Republic of China (including Hong Kong), Japan, and South Korea. Its goal is to deal with short-term regional liquidity problems without having to immediately seek help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in which the US dominates.