Finance ministers from China, Japan and South Korea said in a joint statement Wednesday they have agreed to start studying the use of their own currencies in trade settlement, the latest sign of Asian efforts to reduce dependence on the U.S. dollar.
The ministers from the three big Asian economies also said they are "mindful of" challenges such as growing inflationary pressures in Asia, rising global commodity prices and increasingly volatile capital flows into the region.
The communique from the ministers, who met on the sidelines of the Asian Development Bank's annual meeting in the Vietnamese capital, was basically in line with a draft statement released Tuesday.
"We will continue to implement appropriate macroeconomic policies and strengthen policy cooperation to achieve strong, sustainable and balanced economic growth of the three countries," the ministers said in the final statement.
The ministers also said they agreed to start studying regional infrastructure financing and disaster risk insurance.