Financial Structure and Financial Crisis

For many years the economies of South East Asia were regarded as models for economic development. The four tigers, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, grew from low levels of income per head to among the highest in the world in a few decades. The newly industrializing economies of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand had also started to grow at an extremely rapid rate. The Philippines had performed better in recent years. The success of these economies was documented in a 1993 World Bank report entitled The East Asian Miracle. Unfortunately, in the latter half of 1997, with the exception of Taiwan, financial crises struck these economies. Asset prices and exchange rates tumbled and the banking sectors were put under severe strain. The financial crises spilled over into the real economies and severe recessions occurred. This experience raises two obvious questions.