Gross domestic product, foreign exchange reserves, current account surpluses - big numbers are thrown around daily as Asia tries to measure how bad the Crisis is and whether it is bottoming out.

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Bank of China is the country's biggest bank for foreign exchange transactions, so the account closure could hurt the North Korean institution.

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With currency ETFs, investors can enjoy the benefits of the foreign exchange market without an actual forex account.

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They can also use it to put controls around activities such as bank account management and foreign-exchange trades.

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Most have abandoned their old exchange-rate pegs, are running large current-account surpluses, and have built up ample foreign-exchange reserves.

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On the other hand, some of Bank Austria's returns have come from such volatile areas as investments in hedge funds and trading cash, foreign exchange and derivatives for the bank's own account.

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The picture is less clear for Asian countries, which, led by China and Japan, account for about half of the world's foreign-exchange reserves and sovereign-wealth assets.

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In a little-noticed comment during the weekend's meetings, Yi Gang, a deputy governor of China's central bank and head of the country's foreign-exchange reserves, said that China aimed to bring its current-account surplus below 4% of GDP within 3-5 years.

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Organic local-currency growth account for 3.3% of that growth, while higher selling prices, acquisitions, and foreign exchange impacts added the rest.

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