Southeast Asian Crisis

Southeast Asia is suddenly in crisis, the largest country - Indonesia - deeply so. This volume, comprising a set of specially commissioned papers, examines the origins, lessons, and future path of the crisis. Why didn't economists foresee the sudden and catastrophic events of 1997-98? How can seemingly robust and vigorous economies fall so far, so swiftly? Do we, in consequence, need to change the way we view the world? Is there anything to salvage of the "East Asian miracle"? Is Southeast Asia about to experience its own version of the "lost decade", analogous to that which afflicted much of Africa and Latin America in the 1980s?

Traces The Development Experience Of Indonesia, Malaysia And Thailand In The Pre-And Post Asian Crisis Period. Highlights The Lessons That Developing Countries Can Draw From The Same. Has 8 Chapters The Last Bring Conclusions And Suggestions. 2 Annexures.

In August 1998, the Asian currency crisis that had started in mid-1997 metastasized into a global financial crisis with the devaluation of the rouble and a declaration of a Russian Government default on its internal debt. Is this the first wave of such crises the world will see in the future? One common feature among the countries that have fallen victim to the crisis is that they were all "darlings of international finance". Before the financial crisis of 1997, international investors poured money into the stock markets of the East Asian economies, Latin America, Russia, and Eastern Europe. That the crisis afflicted the very countries that depended most heavily on the international economy for their economic growth suggests the importance of the international dimension -- this is the focus of this book. Even though, from the outside, the currency collapses looked similar, the analysis also identifies the important differences in domestic causes as it spread through the different economies.

This book incorporates a selection of eight revised papers presented at the Conference on "Managing Economic Crisis in Southeast Asia", organized jointly by the Saw Centre for Financial Studies, NUS Business School and the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, in January 2010. The chapters deal with the management of the 2008-09 economic crisis in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, and the region as a whole. They represent an analysis of the impact of the economic crisis and the stimulus packages that were swiftly put in place by the governments to mitigate the economic recession and to pave the way for a quick recovery. The success of the monetary and fiscal policy measures in engendering a strong economic recovery in these countries is also discussed in considerable depth. The book, with contributions from experts on the topics covered, will be extremely valuable to businessmen, analysts, academics, students, policy-makers and the general public interested in seeking a greater understanding of the sub-prime crisis that led to the global economic recession.

A full acknowledgement of the dangers of analysis by hindsight leaves one with a simple question: if the origins of the Asian financial crisis lie in the structural flaws in the Asian financial system, then why did it occur when it did? What in the economic structure or fundamentals changed between the Asian Miracle and the Asian Crisis? Some slowdown in East Asian growth was probably inevitable after the fast pace of the preceding three decades. But the slowdown interacted badly with the highly-leveraged financial system. The crisis was the result. Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) is about the things that can help the region put in place the policies and the infrastructure, human and capital, for sustainable growth over the coming years. The international community can play a role in supporting the process of reform. This book briefly assesses the Asian crisis, discusses financial systems for recovery, and the role of investment and trade flows and policies.

The financial crisis that began in Thailand in mid-1997 has now become a global one. It has consumed governments upset defense planning and the regional standing of major powers in Asia, and is forcing us to rethink Asia's entire past and future political trajectory. The security implications go beyond merely the crash of unsound financial systems. Governments have fallen across Asia and in Russia. Civil violence is currently taking place in Indonesia, a key Asian state. Defense research, development and procurement have been postponed in most Asian countries. The crisis and its reverberations have shaken financial markets and governments as far away as Brazil. In order to assess the dangers posed by this crisis to Asian and U.S. security interests, the Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) cosponsored a conference with the National Bureau of Asian Research and the Reserve Officers Association in Seattle, Washington on June 9-10, 1998. This conference represented a unique opportunity to conduct such an assessment since it brought together participants from government the military, academia, international financial institutions, and Asia.

The deep currency crisis which erupted in the beginning of July 1997 among the rapidly growing economies of Southeast Asia raises the question: "Have the rapid rates of growth in the late 1980s and early 1990s mortgaged the economic futures of these economies?" This book examines the economic bases for the crisis and characterizes the nature of the policy weaknesses that led to the crisis. Drawing on the specific features of the crises in Thailand, Korea, and Indonesia and the pattern of contagion in the region, this Updated Edition suggests a list of global policy lessons that can be distilled from Asia's crisis.