The Asean+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (Amro) does not sound like a revolutionary organisation. But it may turn out to be a big step towards insulating Asia from what Guido Mantega, the Brazilian finance minister, has labelled a global currency war.

That description looks overblown in Asia, where the global financial crisis has been relatively kind to exporters. Big exporters such as Samsung, Sony, Toshiba and Honda were hit when global trade collapsed in the second half of 2008. But Asia’s V-shaped recovery has helped them to report improved recent results, along with a host of smaller companies such as Asustek and HTC, the Taiwanese computer and smartphone manufacturers.

Nevertheless, there have been significant foreign exchange tensions in the region as governments responded to a toxic combination of the weak US dollar, Chinese reluctance to let the renminbi rise and inflows of hot money from the west, attracted by higher interest rates.