Publication

This paper examines the 1997 Asian financial crisis and its repercussions. Some estimates suggest that around 50 million people in Indonesia, Korea and Thailand fell below the nationally-defined poverty line between mid 1997 and mid 1998 and many millions more who were confident of middle class status were robbed of their lifetime savings and security. Public expenditures of all kinds were cut, creating “social deficits” that match the economic and financial ones.