Dean Kawai Speaks at the AEBF

We are currently experiencing the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression. Over the last two months, we have witnessed failures and collapses of major financial institutions in the United States (US) and several European countries, as well as massive coordinated actions by their authorities to inject liquidity into money markets, to reduce policy interest rates, and to restore confidence in their financial systems. While the effectiveness of these measures still remains to be judged, the policies of industrialized countries affected by acute financial crises are now heading in the right direction.

Most recently, strong calls are being made for significant reform of the global financial system. The Group of Eight (G-8), joined by major emerging economies such as the PRC, India, and Brazil will hold a series of global summits beginning in November to forge a new system aimed at preventing future financial crises and maintaining global financial stability.

With the spread of the US subprime mortgage crisis to the rest of the US financial system and other industrialized countries' financial markets, a significant slowdown in economic growth has taken place in the US, Europe, and Japan. The crisis has moved from the financial sector to the real economy.

Read Dean Kawai's full speech.