Thailand, which currently chairs the Association of South East Asian Nations, is to propose setting up a regional financial institution for Asia that would be a cross between the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

"The first step would be a kind of Asian IMF, so if we are in trouble we could get some help from this multilateral organisation," finance minister Suchart Thadathamrongvech told the Financial Times. "Then if the situation is not in crisis, it would have money in the system and it could act as a kind of development bank, like the World Bank."