[MALAYSIA’S ALTERNATIVE STRATEGY]
Introduction
The 1997 Asian Financial Crisis drew attention to just how fragile our global economic system can become either when overexposed to foreign market intervention, or when underperformance remains unchecked. Prior to June 1997, The Republic of Korea encountered issues as 10 of its 30 top performing chaebol (Conglomerate) collapsed underneath debt which far exceeded their respective equities. Korean steel production giant Hanbo faced additional stress after amassing a $4.39 billion debt for one new steel mill. Kia Motors fell due to accruing almost $2.1 billion in loans that was awarded on the basis of “need,” as opposed to independent judgment of credit and cash flow determined by the lending authority. Central banking authorities in Indonesia, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia came under threat as their respective currencies were jolted by speculative attacks from foreign investors. Political theorists have multiple assumptions behind what was the absolute cause behind the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, but one country most analysts focus on is Thailand.
Asian Financial Crisis – Thailand
From 1987 to 1996 Thailand experienced a current account deficit averaging -5.4 percent of GDP per year, and the deficit continued to increase. In 1996, the current account deficit accounted for -7.887 percent of GDP ($14.351 billion). Aware of Thailand's economic problems and its currency basket exchange rate, foreign speculators were certain that the government would again devalue the baht. In the spot market, to force devaluation speculators took out loans in baht and made loans in dollars. In the forward market, speculators bet against the currency by contracting wit...
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The "subprime crises" was one of the most significant financial events since the Great Depression and definitely left a mark upon the country as we remain upon a steady path towards recovering fully. The financial crisis of 2008, became a defining moment within the infrastructure of the US financial system and its need for restructuring. One of the main moments that alerted the global economy of our declining state was the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on Sunday, September 14, 2008 and after this the economy began spreading as companies and individuals were struggling to find a way around this crisis. (Murphy, 2008) The US banking sector was first hit with a crisis amongst liquidity and declining world stock markets as well. The subprime mortgage crisis was characterized by a decrease within the housing market due to excessive individuals and corporate debt along with risky lending and borrowing practices. Over time, the market apparently began displaying more weaknesses as the global financial system was being affected. With this being said, this brings into question about who is actually to assume blame for this financial fiasco. It is extremely hard to just assign blame to one individual party as there were many different factors at work here. This paper will analyze how the stakeholders created a financial disaster and did nothing to prevent it as the credit rating agencies created an amount of turmoil due to their unethical decisions and costly mistakes.
Singapore's economy is relatively stable and growing, albeit being slightly affected by global economic woes. As a whole, there are low levels of unemployment and GDP per capita is high(Worldbank,2013), hence implying more disposable income that nationals have to spend. Nonetheless, spurred on by soaring ...
Singapore as a country has had various transformations throughout its history, however the period 1950 and 1970 was quite critical. Much of these changes had a lot to do with the development of trade and manufacturing. This is without forgetting the financial sector where the intention was to come up with a financial hub that could be used in economic development. Looking at the case of Singapore, we would say that it is a productive economy with a very high market competition. This observation has been further clarified by the Swiss International Institute for Management Development, going with their report that they released in the year 2001 (Chellaraj & Mattoo, 2009). In this study, we intend to evaluate the case of political economy of development in Singapore and examine the tensions between the state and various economic institutions. In additions to examining this institution, we would also like to examine how these variables have contributed towards the attainment of favorable growth rates and economic prosperity.
The inflation rate of Thailand was the lowest during 1998. From 1997 to 1998, to solve the Asian financi...
The followings are three popular views about the cause of the Korean economic crisis in 1997(Cho, 1999): First, the currency crisis in Southeast Asian countries mainly Thailand and Indonesia in the summer of 1997 made Korea vulnerable to the attacks of currency speculators. So, the currency speculators turned their attention to Korea after having devoured the Southeast Asian countries. Second, the root cause of the...
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The post- New Order regimes have had to try and manage the aftermath of the Asian Financial Crisis (AFC), while simultaneously dealing with the repercussions of the Suharto regime. An area that this greatly impacted was the Indonesian business sector, which was struggling between the flight of the capital during the AFC, the IMF regulations and changes, and its corrupt business culture. Ultimately the new governments failed to properly address these issues creating an uncertain business and economic environment. The New Order regime left a lasting legacy of cronyism and nepotism, this opaque culture managed to survive the transition to democracy as it served both the political and business elite. The private sectors gains have often come at the expense of public welfare and the elite have used their political influence to block threatening reforms and to protect their interests. (Hamilton- Hart)
In this essay we look in-depth on how government strategies and economic policy play a crucial role in the success of High Performance Asian Economies (HPAEs) during 1960 to 1990 (World Bank 1993).There are eight countries within HPAEs: South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Japan. Its economic development has significantly rise that it was name ‘East Asia Miracle’ (World Bank, 1993).
Debt crisis is becoming common and faced by most citizens in Malaysia. Between June 1997 and January 1998 a financial crisis swept like a brush fire through the "tiger economies" of SE Asian. Over the previous decade the SE Asian states of Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and South Korea, had registered some of the most impressive economic growth rates in the world. Their economies had expanded by 6% to 9% per annum compounded, as measured by Gross Domestic Product. This Asian miracle, however, appeared to come to an sudden end in late 1997 when in one country after another, local stock markets and currency markets imploded. When the dust started to settle in January 1998 the stock markets in many of these states had lost over 70% of their value, their currencies had depreciated against the US dollar by a similar amount, and the once proud leaders of these nations had been forced to go cap in hand to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to beg for a massive financial assistance. (W.L.Hill, n.d.)
Radelet, Steven, and Jeffrey D. Sachs. “Currency Crises.” The National Bureau of Economic Research. National Bureau of Economic Research, Jan. 2000. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. .
Janus Corporate Solutions. (2011) Introduction to Singapore’s economy. Guide me Singapore. Retrieved April 4, 2011 from http://www.guidemesingapore.com/relocation/introduction/singapores-economy
Pham, Q.N. (2009) Impact of the global financial and economic crisis on Vietnam, a rapid assessment. Available at: http://www.ilo.org/asia/whatwedo/events/lang--en/docName--WCMS_103550/index.htm (Accessed: 3rd August 2010).
Following a period of severe and prolonged recession, the Malaysian economy has returned to growth aided by a relaxation of monetary and fiscal policies and by increased export demand, particularly in the electronics sector. While the world economic slowdown was more severe than expected and the unprecedented September 11 events in the United States had widespread implications for all economies, Malaysia was able to steer away from a major economic contraction and GDP growth for the year remained in positive territory. However, given the openness of its economy with trade accounting for about 200 percent of GDP, Malaysia was not spared from the negative effects of the United States economic slowdown. These effects came in the form of declining manufacturing production and negative export growth, particularly of electronics. Nevertheless, the government’s initiation of strong monetary and fiscal policies to stimulate economic growth through accelerating domestic economic activities and reducing the over-dependence on exports helped the nation to sustain a positive real GDP growth.