SBV delegation attends 28th AFMGM+3

Participating in the meeting, there were senior leaders from the Central Banks, the Monetary Authorities, and the Ministries of Finance of the ASEAN+3 members, the Director of the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO), the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Secretary-General of the ASEAN Secretariat.

Policy and macroeconomic dialogue

At the macroeconomic policy discussion session, representatives from the international organizations, including the IMF, the ADB, and AMRO, assessed that the global economic landscape is facing increasingly complicated and prolonged challenges. According to the IMF, the global economic growth has been slowing down significantly in 2025. The IMF also warned about the rise of the trade protectionism. In that context, the IMF called on the international community to maintain close policy dialogues and enhance the coordination among the major economies.

According to the ADB representative, the ASEAN+3 region is expected to grow at 4.1% in 2025, lower than that of 2024, mainly due to the prolonged effects of the high inflation and the global trade volatilities. However, the ADB still noted several positive outlooks in the region, including the recovery of the domestic demand, the strengthened intra-regional trade, and continued infrastructure investment as a key growth driver. The ADB recommended that the ASEAN+3 economies expand the supply chain financing, adopt counter-cyclical fiscal measures, and accelerate the digitalization of their economies and the investment in green growth.

In addition, AMRO also warned of potential risks in the coming time, including high global interest rates, capital flow reversals, exchange rate volatilities, and pressures from the weather and climate shocks. AMRO also noted the increasingly divergent policy responses among the countries.

At the meeting, the ASEAN+3 Central Bank Governors and Finance Ministers shared about the macroeconomic situations and the management policies in the context of global volatilities. Some ASEAN+3 countries acknowledged positive growth, exceeding the expectations in 2024, but still expressed their cautions in managing the monetary policy in order to control the inflation, especially in the context of being affected by such factors as natural disasters, the weakening global demand, and the geopolitical tensions.

In the context of increasing global uncertainties, several ASEAN+3 countries expressed their concerns about the impacts on trade and investment, while emphasizing the importance of strengthening the policy coordination, enhancing the regional financial architecture, and leveraging intra-regional strengths to boost the region’s resilience in the coming period.

An overview of the meeting

The ASEAN+3 finance and banking integration process

At the meeting, the ASEAN+3 Central Bank Governors and Finance Ministers discussed and adopted several financial and banking cooperation initiatives within the ASEAN+3 framework, including the amended Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization (CMIM) to supplement the Rapid Financing Facility (RFF) and the use of freely usable currencies (FUC) within the RFF framework, thereby helping to add an emergency support mechanism for the members when shocks such as natural disasters or pandemics occur.

In addition, the ASEAN+3 Central Bank Governors and Finance Ministers also discussed about the proposal to transition the CMIM to a paid-in capital (PIC) model, instead of the current commitment-based system. Regarding AMRO’s operations, the Central Bank Governors and Finance Ministers acknowledged its role in the policy support, research, and economic oversight. In the coming time, AMRO would implement its 2025–2027 Medium-Term Implementation Plan and its Digital Banking Strategy to modernize its operations, while continuing to serve as the secretariat for the ASEAN+3 financial integration process.

Joint Statement of the 28th AFMGM+3

Toward the end of the meeting, the ASEAN Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors agreed on the contents of a Joint Statement, which reaffirms their commitments to multilateralism, a rules-based, fair, transparent and inclusive global trading system.

The 29th AFMGM are planned to be held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan in 2026 under the co-chair of the Philippines and Japan.

HY