Finance ministers from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) group said on Friday they were committed to addressing weaknesses in their economies but stressed they would not seek to gain a competitive edge by weakening their currencies.

 

"We will refrain from competitive devaluation and resist all forms of protectionism," ministers from the 21-member group said in a statement at the end of a meeting on the Philippine island of Cebu.

 

"We maintain our commitment to strengthen economic growth and promote financial stability in the Apec region," they said, even as they conceded risks to growth remained significant.

 

The Cebu meeting took place amid growing concern about the slowdown in China, the world's second-largest economy, and recent swings in global financial markets following its devaluation of its yuan currency last month.

 

China has insisted that the devaluation was not part of a currency war, but was aimed at making its exchange rate reflect market conditions more closely.

 

Speaking at a closing ceremony, China's vice finance minister said volatility in Chinese stock and currency markets was temporary.

 

"The exchange rate movements in the past month is totally because of technical reasons and factors, and will not affect the stability of financial markets in the future," the vice minister, Shi Yaobin, told a press briefing.

 

Apec members include the US, China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Canada, and together account for 57 per cent of global production and 46.5 per cent of world trade.

 

On the whole, delegates to the two-day meeting have been circumspect in their comments, often speaking in bland terms about the need for greater financial integration.

 

But Malaysia's deputy minister of finance, Johari Abdul Ghani, said all the talk of integration might not amount to much because decisions taken by Apec's larger economies were having a big impact on smaller ones.

 

"The developed countries, the much stronger economic countries, also have to be mindful any action that they do will affect the smaller countries in Apec," he told Reuters, singling out China's devaluation and eventual rises in US interest rates.

 

Malaysia's ringgit has slumped by 18.87 per cent against the dollar this year and is the worst-performing major currency in Asia.

 

"We want to have financial integration. But at the same time, when you have developed countries like America, China for example, anything that they do will affect some of the emerging countries. The impact of this is that the integration will not be able to come," he said. - Reuters