World bankers hold secret meeting!
SYDNEY, Australia - February 6, 2010 - The world's top central bankers began arriving in Australia for high-level talks as renewed fears about the strength of the global economic recovery gripped world share markets.
Representatives from 24 central banks and monetary authorities, including the U.S. Federal Reserve and European Central Bank, landed in Sydney to meet tomorrow at an undisclosed location.
Organized by the Bank for International Settlements last year, the two-day talks are shrouded in secrecy with extensive security believed to have been invoked by law enforcement agencies.
Speculation that the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Ben S. Bernanke, would make an appearance could not be confirmed last night.
The event will be dominated by Asian delegations and is expected to include governors of the People's Bank of China, the Bank of Japan and the Reserve Bank of India.
The arrival of the high-powered gathering coincided with a fresh meltdown on world share markets, sparked by renewed concerns about global growth and sovereign debt.
Fears that countries including Greece, Portugal, Spain and Dubai could default on debt repayments combined with disappointing U.S. jobs data to spook investors.
Australia's ASX 200 slumped 2.4% to its lowest close since November 5, echoing a sharp fall on Wall Street.
Asian share markets were also pummelled, with Japan's Nikkei 225 down almost 3% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng off 3.3%.
The damage was also being felt by European markets last night with London's FTSE 100 down 1% in early trade.
Sovereign debt fears rippled through to the Australian dollar, which was hammered to a four-month low of US86.43 and was trading close to that level last night.
"This does feel like '08 and '07 all over again whereby we had these sorts of little fires pop up and they are supposedly contained but in reality they are not quite contained," said H3 Global Advisers chief executive Andrew Kaleel.
