Asian Financial Crisis Case Study

1022 Words3 Pages

In 1997 Asia’s ‘miracle economies’ were hit by an unprecedented and unexpected financial crisis, causing falling export growth, currency shocks, declines in productivity and resulting in a US$60 billion IMF bailout. Contemporaries feared that the localised crisis would lead to a world wide crisis through contagion, starting with China due to their considerable intra-regional trade and investment with those countries affected by the crisis. China suffered from the same inherent structural weaknesses that caused the demise of its Asian counterparts, perhaps most clearly seen through its “bank-dominated financial systems, weak central bank regulation and supervision of commercial banks, excessive lending, and a large buildup of non-performing …show more content…

The foremost theories speculate that the primary cause was poorly regulated and over-leveraged financial institutions, making inefficient loans sparking investor panic. Financial weaknesses were also prevalent in China’s financial system as seen Table 1, China’s bank loans to GDP was very similar to that of Malaysia at 92.7 and considerably higher than Indonesia at 55.4, total debt to reserves was also slightly higher than Malaysia at 162.0. China’s financial system was potentially weaker than its neighbours due to excessive NPL 's, at a conservative estimate these were in the region of U$200 billion equating to 25% of GDP. In China’s four largest state owned banks NPL’s increased from 20% in 1994 to 25% in 1997, far higher than the ratios in South Korea (17%) or Thailand pre-crisis. All four of China’s largest banks would be deemed insolvent using the internationally accepted 8% capital adequacy standard, therefore it was not financial sector differences that guaranteed China’s …show more content…

George Yeo, Singapore’s minister for information, praised the Beijing administration “the determination of the Chinese government not to devalue the renminbi in order not to destabilise Asia further will long be remembered.” Floating the RMB would have been devastating to the Chinese economy, through the considerable appreciation of the nominal exchange rate, and the subsequent reduction in

Open Document