Such disclosure could be useful, and work on this topic is proceeding. But progress on official disclosure should not be delayed pending the outcome of these efforts. The Asian financial crises have reinforced the basic lesson that emerging market economies should pay particular attention to how they manage their foreign exchange reserves. But managing reserves alone is not enough.
In particular, reserves should be managed along with liabilities--and other assets-to minimise the vulnerability of emerging market economies to a variety of shocks. In this context 3  BIS Review 47/1999  some simple principles can be outlined that are likely to be useful guidelines for policymakers. It may also be useful to consider somewhat more nuanced approaches to this problem.