The top East Asia specialist of the World Bank says there are signs that the economies of the region are starting to recover from their financial crisis.

The official, Richard Newfarmer, told a seminar in Bangkok that currencies had stabilised and the policy response of many governments had changed for the better -- with more concerned about financial supervision than before and the efforts of Thailand in cleaning up its banking sector particularly noteworthy.But the integration of international financial markets meant no country was impervious to external factors and he warned that the region's recovery would be affected by what happened in Japan, the United States and Europe.