The head of the Asian Development Bank warned Friday that although Asian growth rates are the highest they have been since the financial crisis, soaring oil prices could limit further growth and significant income disparities still exist within the region. Haruhiko Kuroda's remarks came at the close of a three-day conference of the bank that was dominated by concerns over high oil prices and China's undervalued yuan, which U.S. officials say makes Chinese exports artificially cheap. Kuroda said that regional growth during the past year was the highest since the 1997-98 Asian economic crisis, but added that the greatest challenge in the short-term would be high oil prices. If high oil prices persist for the next few years "then that would certainly affect the growth prospects of many countries in the region," Kuroda said. He said that the economic successes were "not uniform and significant disparities in economic and social development persist within countries and across the region." Delegates from the ADB's 63-member countries also discussed the need for the pooling of resources to avoid financial shocks.