Finding right exit strategy key for Asian recovery: IMF

WASHINGTON, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The International Monetary Fund on Saturday said the primary challenge facing Asia as the global economy slowly begins to recover is finding the correct exit strategy.

"The main near-term challenge for policy makers is judging the appropriate pace for normalizing monetary and fiscal policy," Anoop Singh, director of the IMF Asia and Pacific department, said at a press conference.

"With Asia recovering faster than advanced economies, policy normalization in the region will need to begin earlier than in several other parts of the world," he said.

Singh cautioned that policymakers in the region, while designing exit strategies, need to consider the fragility of the economic recovery in the world as a whole.

Finance ministers, central bank governors and economists from more than 180 countries were expected to attend the semi-annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank on Saturday and Sunday in Washington.

Sovereign credit crisis, exit strategies from stimulus measures and increasing quota shares for emerging economies are the main issues to be discussed at the meetings.