Japan, India to sign currency swap deal

Japan and India are set to sign a currency swap deal totaling six billion dollars to guard against a possible financial crisis, a Japanese official said Friday.
Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga, now on a visit to India, and his Indian counterpart were expected to sign the deal later Friday, said the finance ministry official, who declined to be named.
Under the deal, the two governments will supply each other with up to three billion dollars from their foreign currency reserves for possible market intervention in the event of financial turmoil.
The pact, the first of its kind between Japan and a nation outside East Asia, is in line with an initial accord reached last year when then prime minister Shinzo Abe visited India.
Asian countries, led by Japan, China, South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, have agreed on similar currency swap deals since the region was battered by the East Asian financial crisis a decade ago.