Several emerging economies in Asia face a “key source of risk” in the eventual tapering of monetary stimulus in advanced nations, an International Monetary Fund official said.

“Global growth is in low gear and downside risks persist,” IMF Deputy Managing Director Zhu Min said in prepared remarks for a conference in Port Vila, Vanuatu. He didn’t specify which countries were at risk from the scaling back of so-called quantitative easing policies that the central banks of Japan and the U.S. have adopted.

“Advanced economies are recovering, but overall recovery is slow and is hindered by constraints on both the demand and the supply sides,” he said. “Emerging markets are still in the lead, although they are slowing down from elevated levels in recent years.”

He said economic expansion in emerging Asia is expected to reach 6.25 percent to 6.5 percent this year and next.