Masaaki Shirakawa: Recent economic and financial developments and the conduct of monetary policy Speech by Mr Masaaki Shirakawa, Governor of the Bank of Japan, at the Kisaragi-kai Meeting, Tokyo, 4 November 2009. *  *  *  Introduction I am privileged to have an opportunity to speak before such a large audience.
Again, fixed rates raise issues of vulnerability, but these countries did not stick to this fixed rate regime out of any perversity - they felt they needed this anchor in their macro policies. At the same time, some of their neighbours which have come through the crisis well also have fixed rates - Hong Kong and China.