Also, the further expansion of the region's net supply of saving in the past two years appears to reflect primarily an increase in desired saving by the emerging-market countries, whereas the previous increase in net saving also involved some decline in desired investment in East Asia after the financial crises of the 1990s.
Exchange rate policies in Asia have also influenced desired saving in that region. 6  The combined current account balance of developing Asia excluding China narrowed a bit as a share of GDP between 2004 and 2006, as the investment rate edged up while the saving rate was little changed. Nevertheless, investment rates in this region still remain substantially below their 1996 levels.