ASIAN CRISIS AND RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
• Beginning July 1997 – period of financial crisis
• Started in Thailand, followed in Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines
• Subsequently spread to Australia, Korea, Hong Kong
• Stock Market fell by about 30%
Introduction
Why did it happen?
• The Bubble Economy
• External Sector Difficulties
• Contagion, Globalization, and Financial Integration
The Bubble Economy– all the countries in Southeast Asia grew very
rapidly during 1994 and 1995
– huge inflow of foreign capital was channeled to both fixed investment and equity portfolios
– current account deficits widened and stock markets boomed
The Bubble Economy
• Inadequate fund management system• Ineffective sterilization of capital inflows• Restrictions on foreign banks entry• Nonperforming loans• High costs of financial services• Balance Sheets
Nonperforming Loans as Percent of Total Loans1980s 1994 1995 1996
Asian Economies
Trigger economies:
Indonesia n.a 12.0% 10.4% 8.8%
Malaysia 30.5 8.1 5.5 3.9
Thailand 15.0 7.5 7.7 n.a
Other Asian economies:
Hong Kong n.a 3.4 2.8 2.7
Korea 6.7 1.0 0.9 0.8
Taiwan 5.5 2.0 3.1 3.8
Industrialized Countries
Japan n.a 3.3 3.3 3,4
United States 4.1 1.9 1.3 1.1
External Sector Difficulties– said to have been behind the outbreak
of the financial crisis. They include the following:
• Rapid growth in current-account deficits
• Overvalued exchange rates
• The collapse in exports
Exchange-Rate Depreciation, Current-Account Balance, and Merchandise Export Growth in Selected Asian Countries (Percent)
Exchange-Rate Overvaluation
Current-Account Balance (of GDP)
Merchandise Exports (of
Growth)
June 1997 1995 1996 1995 1996
Trigger Economies:
Indonesia 4.2% -3.3% -3.3% 13.4% 9.7%
Malaysia 9.3 -10.0 -4.9 20.3 6.5
Philippines 11.9 -4.4 -4.7 28.7 18.7
Thailand 6.7 -7.9 -7.9 23.1 0.5
Other Asian economies:
Hong Kong 22.0 -3.9 -1.3 14.8 4.0
Korea -7.6 -2.0 -4.9 30.3 3.7
Singapore 13.5 16.8 15.7 13.7 5.3
Taiwan -5.5 2.1 4.0 20.0 3.8
Contagion, Globalization, and Financial Integration
– enormous reversal of net private capital flows to the five crisis economies (Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea, Philippines, Thailand)
– slowdown in growth in Europe and currency appreciation when the US dollar strengthened
– globalization linked the East Asian markets for goods and assets which resulted from liberalization of trade in goods and capital
Contagion, Globalization, and Financial Integration
• Role of institutional investors– control over vast amounts of financial resources
which can introduce to volatility into the developing economies
– fund managers tend to act together to pull out individual markets
• How strong was this contagion effect?– investors bailed out of all countries without
discrimination which put pressure on the exchange rate and subsequently on the external balance and interest rates
– led to bankruptcies in the vulnerable banking and corporate sectors
– severe economic slow down
Post-Crisis Experience
• The world economy• Economic growth• Economic recovery• Emerging development divide in Asia• Social impact of the Economic Crisis
The World Economy – world output in 1998 fall, this was primarily the
result of a slowdown in the growth of the US economy
– Asia grew rapidly, registered growth of between 1% and 2%
– US economy suffered a short and shallow recession , this reduced the demand for US imports and probably also slowed the growth of Asian economies
Economic Growth– overall growth in the Asian economies
did not immediately reflect events in the financial sector and in foreign exchange markets
• Exchange Rates
• Equity Prices
• Restructuring
Growth Rates of GDP in Asia, 1997-20071997 1998 19
99200
0200
1200
2200
32004 2005 2006 2007
China 8.8%
7.8% 7.1%
8.0%
8.3%
9.1%
10.0%
10.1%
10.4%
11.7%
11.9%
Hong Kong
5.1 -5.0 3.4 10.2 0.6 1.8 3.2 8.6 7.1 7.0 6.4
Indonesia 4.7 -13.1 0.8 4.8 3.8 4.3 5.0 4.9 5.7 5.5 6.3
Korea 5.0 -6.7 10.9
9.3 3.8 7.0 3.1 4.6 4.2 5.1 5.0
Malaysia 7.3 -7.4 6.1 8.3 0.3 4.4 5.4 7.1 5.3 5.8 6.3
Philippines
5.2 -0.6 3.4 4.4 1.8 4.4 4.5 6.0 5.0 5.4 7.2
Singapore 8.5 -0.1 6.4 9.4 -2.3 4.0 2.9 8.7 7.3 8.2 7.7
Taiwan 6.7 4.6 5.4 5.9 -2.2 4.2 3.4 6.1 4.2 4.9 5.7
Thailand -1.4 -10.5 4.4 4.6 2.2 5.3 7.0 6.2 4.5 5.1 4.8
Stock Market RecoveryDec 1998-Dec 1999 Dec 1999-Dec 2000 Dec 2000-Dec 2001
LocalCurrency
U.S.Dollars
LocalCurrency
U.S.Dollars
LocalCurrency
U.S.Dollars
China 21.7 21.6 49.4 49.4 19.9 19.9
Hong Kong 61.7 61.2 10.5 -10.8 -23.9 -23.9
Indonesia 65.0 84.9 -38.1 -52.9 -10.0 -14.3
Korea 70.5 80.7 -48.4 -51.6 27.6 25.4
Malaysia 35.0 35.0 -12.5 -12.5 -2.3 -2.3
Philippines 3.4 -.08 -34.0 -47.0 -24.8 -27.0
Singapore 69.6 67.6 -20.9 -24.1 -17.8 -22.4
Taiwan 23.6 26.0 -40.3 -43.4 12.3 7.2
Thailand 25.0 19.7 -43.7 -50.8 8.8 7.7
Stock Market Indices, Beginning of 2008 and November 21, 2008
Stock Market Average
January 2008 November 2008 Percentage Decline
China 5,500 1,969 64%
Hong Kong 27,00 12.659 53
India 20,000 8,915 55
Indonesia 2,700 1,146 57
Korea 1,900 1,003 47
Malaysia 1,500 866 42
Singapore 3,500 1,662 52
Taiwan 8,200 4,171 49
Economic Recovery– revival of domestic demand supported
by exports and a restoration of investor confidence
– softer budget deficits and lower interest rates
– sustained growth
Current-Account Balance for Asia Economies as Percent of GDP, 1997-2007
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2005 2006 2007
China 4.1% 3.1% 1.6% 1.5% 1,2% 1.9% 7.2% 9.4% 11.3%
Hong Kong
-3.1 2.7 7.5 5.5 7.5 10.7 11.4 12.1 13.5
Indonesia
0.7 -0.3 -1.7 -4.6 -5.0 4.1 0.1 2.9 2.4
Korea -1.7 12.7 6.0 2.4 1.9 1.3 1.9 0.6 0.6
Malaysia
-5.9 3.1 15.9 8.8 5.5 7.6 14.5 16.3 15.5
Philippines
-5.3 2.4 9.4 11.5 8.0 1.6 2.0 4.5 4.4
Singapore
19.0 24.8 25.9 23.6 24.0 21.5 18.6 21.8 24.3
Taiwan 2.4 1.8 2.9 2.4 2.5 9.2 4.9 7.2 8.6
Thailand 2.1 12.7 10.2 8.2 6.5 6.0 -4.3 1.1 6.1
Emerging Development in Asia
– putting China together with Taiwan, Korea, and Hong Kong as East Asia
– grouping the five major Southeast Asian countries together (excluding the Mekong countries)
Social Impact of the Economic Crisis– put extreme pressure on many sectors of the
economies of the five crisis countries– credit crunch made banks reluctant to lend and
firms were starved of working capital– currency depreciation made it difficult for firms
to service external debt– inflation accelerated – purchasing power fell as the price of import s
increased– government revenues came under strain when
the tax base contracted and incomes fell
Lessons and Prospects For the Future
An Agenda for reform– the reform agenda prescribed by
international banks and aid agencies after the crisis. They include the following:
• Debt restructuring• Private-sector credit lines• Reform exchange-rate regime• Capital Account reform• International Portfolio Controls
• Establish minimum international standards of financial crisis
• Information and transparency• Global Surveillance• Reform of financial Markets• Greater Competition• Consolidation• Supervision and regulation• Accounting and disclosure• Stock markets• Trade policies• Foreign direct investment
Some Policy Implications
• they could have cut back on growth
• they could have loosened the attachment of their currency to the US dollar
• they could have put a tax on short-term capital inflows if there was a reluctance to loosen the exchange-rate peg
Summary and Developments in the New Millennium
2 reasons for the possible slow growth of the countries that already recovered
1. More difficult to maintain rapid growth as incomes continue to approach the levels of the OECD countries
2. The rapid growth of the early 1990s reflected overheating to some extent.
Indonesia• Have taken longer to recover but are now
on a stronger trajectory• Has averaged GDP growth of more than
5% since 2002
Hong Kong and China• Suffering from a reduction in export
competitiveness vis-à-vis the result of Asia because of exchange-rate realignment
• Growth in China has remained strong, partly as a result of a very strong expansionary fiscal and monetary policy in the last part of 1998 and in 1999.
• Hong Kong suffered a loss due to:– its currency is still pegged to the U.S. dollar.– China’s export sector has begun to feel the
pinch of relative currency appreciation
• China adopted a more flexible exchange-rate regime in 2007; continues to grow rapidly