East Asian countries double size of crisis fund

MANILA, Philippines—Southeast Asian countries and their major trading partners China, Japan and South Korea have agreed to double the firepower of a regional crisis fund to $240 billion.

Finance officials from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the three regional economic giants also agreed to increase the portion of the fund that countries can tap without a parallel aid package from the International Monetary fund.

The currency fund, known as the Chiang Mai Initiative after the northern Thai city where it was first agreed, was set up as a financial crisis safety net for Southeast Asia.

The region was the epicenter of the East Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s.