...THE EAST ASIAN CRISIS Introduction: The East Asian crisis was a period of financial crisis that gripped much of Asia which beginning in July 1997 and raised fears of worldwide economic meltdown due to financial contagion.1 Several countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the republic of Korea and the Philippines were hit directly while others such as Taiwan province of China, Singapore and especially Hong Kong, China were badly affected. What began as a speculative attack on the Thai baht in July 1997 quickly spread as ‘contagion’ to the other countries. Over a three-month period between July and October 1997, the baht fell nearly 40 per cent, the Malaysian ringgit and Philippine peso by about 27 per cent, the Indonesian rupiah by about 40 per cent and the Korean won approximately 35 per cent against the United States dollar. For countries that had been dubbed “miracle economies” this was a serious blow with wide-ranging economic, social and political ramifications.2 In this paper we would try to undertake an empirical analysis of the factors leading to the crisis by analysing on two major points: 1) How have these countries performed in the years leading to the crisis? 2) What was the policy response to the currency crisis and what similarities/differences were there in policy responses across countries? We try to do this by analysing the macroeconomic data of three countries, Malaysia, Thailand and the Republic of Korea, over a 13-year period, from 1990 to 2002. The...
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...Dzhalil Atakeev Finance 190 Professor Shlyakhov 10/21/2013 Asian Currency Crisis The Asian Currency Crisis started in Thailand. The crisis just reflected structural and policy misinterpretation of the Asian region. Fundamental imbalances triggered the currency and financial crisis in 1997, due to crisis markets overreaction and herding caused the plunge of exchange rates, asset prices and economic conditions. Everything started from Thailand, before 1997 the economy grew was very high in Thailand, it was averaging 9% per year. The rate between USD and Baht was $25 per 1 baht. The 1997 was crucial for Thailand because massive speculators attacked Thai baht. The spark on Asian crisis was when prime minister of Thailand announced that he would not devalue the baht, and government just couldn’t defend baht, which was fixed to several currencies, one of the dominant components was USD. The decrease in economy of Thailand cause massive layoffs in finance, real estate, and construction that resulted many people to return their villages and countries. The Thailand baht was devaluating and by 1998 it reached lowest value of 58 baht over 1 USD. Without any support from foreign reserves Thai government had to float the baht, so that way baht was set on currency market. Since baht was pegged to other currencies crisis spread to another Asian countries. By 2001, Thailand's economy had recovered. The increasing tax revenues allowed the country to balance its budget and repay its debts...
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...Impact of the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 and effect to Latin America Name: Institution: Date: Abstract In 1997, the Asian Financial Crisis spread rapidly all over the Asia and affected almost all the economies in the world. Prior to the Asian Financial Crisis, the Asian countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Singapore experienced a remarkable growth in the economy that was considered the highest in the world. These Asian economies increased by a notable proportion of 6 to 10 percent annually in the GDP. However, what had been regarded as an Asian miracle seemed to crumple down rapidly 1997 when these Asian countries were faced with a severe financial crisis in their local stock and currency markets. When the economies started recovering from the crisis in 1998, the stock markets in several countries had considerably lost more than 70 percent of their worth, while their currencies depreciated in comparison to the US dollar (Pettis, 2001). The Asian Financial Crisis also affected several nations in the Latin America as they experienced a relentless economic meltdown that had detrimental effects to the economies. For instance, the financial crisis force multinational firms to close down due to liquidation, the banking system deteriorated and this forced high levels of lay-offs leading to unemployment. In addition, the financial crisis resulted in the loss of the people’s purchasing power in the Latin American while nations turned to...
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... 1 Asian Contagion 1 Emerging Market Crises 3 Meltdown in Thailand 7 The International Monetary Fund 9 Implication for Business 11 Malaysia 13 Preventing and Managing Future Crises 14 Conclusion 16 References 18 Introduction Asian Contagion In March 1997 Asia faced a serious crisis in financial sector. This concern was started from Thailand and has spread to a lot of countries in Asia. Obviously it affected to those countries in economy situation such as currency value. Also called the "Asian Contagion", this was a series of currency devaluations and other events that spread through many Asian markets beginning in the summer of 1997. The currency markets first failed in Thailand as the result of...
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...Consequences of the Asian Financial Crisis,” in Gregory W. Noble and John Ravenhill, eds., The Asian Financial Crisis and the Architecture of Global Finance, ed., Cambridge, 2000, pp. 1-35 [pic] Summary: The Asian financial crisis resulted from the sudden flight of large amounts of capital from Asian countries that lacked adequate systems of prudential regulation, and whose foreign exchange rate proved disastrously brittle. The crisis was unique in its unprecedented severity of corporate distress and banking sector problems, and its quickness in recovery from the crisis. While technical improvements in the financial system were institutionalized, the crisis did not bring fundamental structural revisions, in both political and economic arena. Doughty resistance from entrenched ideologies and interests in the U.S, the U.K, and the IMF prevented the reforms and rearrangements in the international financial system from happening. ➢ The East Asian crisis---the severest jolt to the world economy since the Oil Shock in early 1980s. ➢ Asian Crisis ---spread from Thailand to Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Korea. Sequences---Export decline ( loss of investors’ confidence( Currency devaluation due to lack of foreign reserve( IMF emergency fund requiring tight budget and monetary policy( increase in non-performing loans and damage in domestic industries ➢ Drastic increase in international private capital inflow in the ‘90s was key to understand this crisis. Liberalization...
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...Introduction In this essay, we will discuss about Asian financial crisis. This crisis happened in 1997. Thailand, South Korea, and Indonesia are the worst countries that affected. There are two views that created the crisis, one is fundamental view and the other one is panic view. Hot money is money that flows between financial markets to get the highest short-term interest rates possible. Capital inflow is increase in the amount of money available from foreign sources for the purchase of local capital assets such as buildings, lands, and machinery. IMF intervention until now still become controversial, two of well-known economist which are Stiglitz and Sachs said that because of IMF intervention the crisis has become much worse rather than before. Moreover, we will discuss about global crisis, this crisis happened in 2007. This started in US because of housing mortgage, and also credit crunch. The difference between Asia crisis and the Global crisis also will be discussed. Asian Crisis Hot money is “Money that flows regularly between financial markets as investors attempt to ensure they get the highest short-term interest rates possible. Hot money will flow from low interest rate yielding countries into higher interest rates countries by investors looking to make the highest return” (Investopedia, 2011). Capital Inflow is “increase in the amount of money available from foreign sources for the purchase of local capital assets such as buildings, lands, and machinery”...
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...Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia ISSN 2383-9449 Fumitaka Furuoka, Beatrice Lim, Catherine Jikunan and Lo May Chiun (2012) Economics Crisis and Response: Case Study of Malaysia’s Responses to Asian Financial Crisis Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia Vol. 11, No. 1: 43-56 Journal abbreviation: J. Contemp. East. Asia Stable URL: http://eastasia.yu.ac.kr/documents/Fumitaka_11_1.pdf www.JCEA-Online.net Open Access Publication Creative Commons License Deed Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia, Volume 11, No.1: 43-56 http://dx.doi.org/10.17477/jcea.2012.11.1.043 Economics Crisis and Response: Case Study of Malaysia’s Responses to Asian Financial Crisis Fumitaka Furuoka, Beatrice Lim, Catherine Jikunan and Lo May Chiun The paper chooses the “Asian Financial Crisis” as a case study to examine its impact on Malaysian economy and describes how Malaysian government responded to the crisis. It also focuses on the Asian financial crisis’ impact on the employment of banking sector in Malaysia. In the finance, insurance, real estate and business service sector, a number of 6,596 workers were retrenched. Banks were forced into mergers and acquisition as well as downsizing, trim lean, organizational changes and introduction of new technologies. Excess workers were offered a “voluntary separation scheme.” These retrenched workers became the urban poor facing high cost of living and no opportunity for jobs as there is no safety net provided. 1. Introduction...
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...INDONESIA: The Causes, Effects and Lessons of the 1997 East Asian Financial Crisis by Zara Ahmed Julia Dreier Frank Ro April 9, 2007 FSPP 556: Macroeconomics Professor Kathryn Dominguez [pic] Introduction Following its independence in 1945, the Indonesia economy deteriorated drastically as a result of political instability, a young inexperienced government, and ill-disciplined economic nationalism. However, the New Order administration in the 1960s, brought about a new degree of discipline to economic policy that quickly brought inflation down, managed foreign debt, but more importantly, attracted foreign investment through financial liberalization. As massive inflows of foreign investment poured into the country, problems soon arose with regulation and oversight. These structural weaknesses created instability and ultimately multiplied the effects of the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997. With strong encouragement of the IMF, Indonesia adopted a set of policies to protect currency values and penalize insolvent companies, in order to restore investor and creditor confidence in the country. Despite assistance from the International Monetary Fund, the Crisis devastated the Indonesian economy and brought on massive social unrest. This paper consists of six parts. We intend to analyze pre, during, and post-crisis trends utilizing such macroeconomic models as the Mundell-Fleming model, the IS-LM model, and the open economy model for calculating...
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...From the Asian Miracle to an Asian Century? Economic Transformation in the 2000s and prospects for the 2010s: Review Essay The chosen article, “From the Asian Miracle to an Asian Century? Economic Transformation in the 2000’s and prospects for the 2010s” by Dr. Yiping Huang and Bijun Wang was published by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) as part of proceedings of their annual conference “The Australian Economy in the 2000s” held by Bank's Economic Group. 1.Introduction The article examines Asian economies key transformation during the 2000s and provides prospects for the next decade. In this review essay, I will summarise the article consistent with sections provided by the article and offer appraisal from the economic and political perspective of the proposed prospects. Post significant transformation of Asian economic during the 2000s, the Asian markets is now major contenders in the global market. Their participation in the global market has reached a point where their actions bring global economic impacts of great consequence for the financial, commodities and goods markets. This rapid expansion into the global market brings concerns of potential global economic crisis. 2. Integrated Supply Chains and Dominant Commodity Consumers Past decade reveals integration of supply chains, industrial restructuring and labour allocation contributed to overall Asia market’s GDP growth with major acceleration from China and India. Vertical integration of supply chains with China...
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...East Asian Crisis Financial crisis is a situation in which some financial institutions or assets suddenly lose a large part of their value. East Asian crisis was a series of currency devaluations and other events that spread through many East Asian countries beginning in the summer of 1997. The countries majorly affected by this were: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. South Korea Japan Thailand Indonesia Malaysia Philippines The countries at the center of the recent crisis were for years admired as some of the most successful emerging market economies, owing to their rapid growth and the striking gains in their populations' living standards. With their generally prudent fiscal policies and high rates of private saving, they were widely seen as models for many other countries. No one could have foreseen that these countries could suddenly become embroiled in one of the worst financial crises. Their very success led foreign investors to underestimate their underlying economic weaknesses. Partly because of the large-scale financial inflows that their economic success encouraged, there were also increased demands on policies and institutions, especially those safeguarding the financial sector; and policies and institutions failed to keep pace with these demands. Only as the crisis deepened were the fundamental policy shortcomings and their consequences fully revealed. Also, past successes may have led policymakers to deny the need for action when problems first appeared1. Several factors contributed...
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...of the International Monetary Funds (IMF) in the East Asian Debt Crisis of 1997 By Yaro Sadek Tahirou Minnesota State University, Mankato 2 ABSTRACT During the East Asian Financial crisis in particular, the IMF has been criticized of promoting international cooperation because of the supervised enforcement of its rules. The purpose of this research is to find out how the IMF responded to the East Asian debt crisis and whether or not its responses were the best possible responses to this crisis. Through my research, I talked about the causes of the East Asian financial crisis, the role of the IMF in the international monetary system, and if the IMF responses to Thailand, South Korea and Indonesia were the best responses or not. After analyzing the IMF responses in this crisis, I found that the IMF policies need to be reformed in order to monitor and prevent future financial crises spill-over effects at the global and regional levels. I will analyzed 5 scholarly journals on the financial crisis in East Asia, 3 scholarly articles on the role of IMF in the East Asia financial crisis, and 1 novel called POLITICS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA DEMOCRACY OR LESS by William Case. INTRODUCTION Several financial crises have occurred in the world economy through the last decades. Some examples include the East Asian financial Crisis of 1997, the Latin American debt crisis of 1994-95, the Russian crisis of 1998, and the Brazilian crisis of 1998-99 which spread out to other areas also known...
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...The Asian Economic Crisis The Asian Economic Crisis of 1997 was a regional debacle that stirred and involved practically the rest of the world. It was a unique economical situation that no one expected or suggested. The southeastern Asian countries, such as Thailand, South Korea and Indonesia were financially sound and satisfied all the criteria that economists proclaimed necessary to maintain order and progress. However, economists and the rest of the world did not see the breaches in the economy and realize the affect those considerations would have in the exacerbation of an entire region. The purpose of this essay is to explain what the Asian Economic Crisis was, the causes, consequences, and how the world went about resolving the issue to bring this region to where it is today. The 1990s was a decade of enormous growth in Southeast Asia sustained by its exporting (Noble, 1). It was commonly known as the Asian economic miracle. Macroeconomic balances were relatively steady and inflation was under control in these Asian countries, like Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore. Because of the major progress and developments in these countries, it became an attractive location for foreign investment. Technology had reached a new brink, where people could invest internationally without having to leave the country and establish a huge investment abroad. Trading through the internet was easy, efficient and convenient. Capital Inflow into these countries was inundating the...
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... What were the origins of the Asian currency crisis? The Asian currency crisis was a period of financial crisis started in Thailand in July 1997. Many Asian countries experienced a financial crisis are a large drop in the value of its currency and a large drop in its traded equity prices. Before the crisis happened, many Asian countries produced a dramatic reduction in poverty and rapid economic growth. Behind the boom, there are lots of imbalances: large current account deficit was financed increasingly by short-term inflow; the real exchange rate had appreciated to an unsustainable level; and export growth had slowed obviously. Based on a literature review, a great deal of effort has been made to trying to understand the origins of the crisis. One view is that weaknesses in Asian financial systems were at the root of the crisis. The lack of incentives for effective risk management created by implicit or explicit government guarantees against financial failure caused the weaknesses. The large capital inflows, rapid economic growth and pegged exchange rates also accentuated the weaknesses of the financial sector. An alternative view is that there was not anything wrong with East Asian economies with historical good performance. The large capital inflows to finance productive investments made them vulnerable to a financial panic. The inadequate policy responses to the panic caused the financial crisis and the economic disruption (Sachs and Radelet 1998)...
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...East Asian Economic Crisis A large economic downturn in East Asia threatens to end its nearly 30 year run of high growth rates. The crisis has caused Asian currencies to fall 50-60%, stock markets to decline 40%, banks to close, and property values to drop. The crisis was brought on by currency devaluations, bad banking practices, high foreign debt,loose government regulation, and corruption. Due to East Asia's large impact on the world economy, the panic in Thailand, Indonesia, Korea, and other Asian countries has prompted other countries to worry about the affect on their own economies and offer aid to the financially troubled nations (Sanger 1). The East Asian crisis has affected almost all of the Asian nations, but the three hardest hit countries are Thailand, Indonesia, and South Korea. The panic began in Thailand in May of 1997 when speculators, worried about Thailand's slowing economy, exces sive debt, and political instability devalued the baht as they fled for market-driven currencies like the American dollar. Indonesia's economy soon fell soon after when the rupiah hit a record low against the U.S. dollar. Indonesia is plagued by more than $70 billion worth of bad debts and a corrupt and inefficient government. Thailand and Indonesia also suffer from being overbuilt during real estate booms that Reven2 were the result of huge influxes of cash by optimistic foreign investors. South Korea faltered under the weight of its huge foreign debt...
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...RESEARCH PAPER 99/14 11 FEBRUARY 1999 The Asian Economic Crisis This paper considers the economic crisis that began in the financial markets of South East Asia in 1997 and the consequences for the economies of the region and the rest of the world. The paper provides a chronology of and explores the factors that led to the crisis. An overview is given of the policy measures that the international financial institutions (IFIs), such as the IMF, have taken to deal with the crisis. Some of the arguments and policy proposals made to try to avoid future crises are also covered. Eshan Karunatilleka ECONOMIC POLICY AND STATISTICS SECTION HOUSE OF COMMONS LIBRARY Recent Library Research Papers include: 98/119 98/120 99/1 Unemployment by Constituency - November 1998 Defence Statistics 1998 The Local Government Bill: Best Value and Council Tax Capping Bill No 5 of 1998-99 16.12.98 22.12.98 08.01.99 99/2 99/3 99/4 Unemployment by Constituency - December 1998 Tax Credits Bill Bill 9 of 1998-9 The Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill: 'Age of consent' and abuse of a position of trust [Bill 10 of 1998-99] 13.01.99 18.01.99 21.01.99 99/5 99/6 99/7 The House of Lords Bill: 'Stage One' Issues Bill 34 of 1998-99 The House of Lords Bill: Options for 'Stage Two' Bill 34 of 1998-99 The House of Lords Bill: Lords reform and wider constitutional reform Bill 34 of 1998-99 28.01.99 28.01.99 28.01.99 99/8 99/9 99/10 99/11 99/12 Economic Indicators Local Government...
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