Masaaki Shirakawa, governor of the Bank of Japan, on February 10 warned that although Asian countries had escaped much of the spillover effects originating from the sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone, further deleveraging by European financial institutions posed serious challenges in the future.

At a keynote address at the Japan Securities Dealers Association in Tokyo, Japan, Shirakawa said that while the spillovers from Europe to Asia had been mild so far, Asian economies were not immune to