Publisher's Synopsis
In the early 1990s, the World Bank labelled seven East Asian economies - four of them in Southeast Asia - as miracle economies, which had achieved extraordinarily high rates of economic growth for several decades. In 1996, on the eve of ASEAN's thirtieth birthday, Southeast Asia was experiencing unprecedented harmony and prosperity. For the first time ever, the region's six main internationally-oriented economies were all growing vigorously. By 1998, however, Southeast Asia was suddenly in crisis, the largest country -- Indonesia -- deeply so.
This specially commissioned volume of papers examines the origins, lessons, and future path of the crisis. Why didn't economists foresee the sudden and catastrophic events of 1997-98? How can seemingly robust and vigorous economies fall so far, so swiftly? Do we, in consequence, need to change the way we view the world? Is there anything to salvage of the East Asian miracle? Is Southeast Asia about to experience its own version of the lost decade, analogous to that which afflicted much of Africa and Latin America in the 1980s?
These are authoritative, original, and focused contributions by 15 distinguished specialists from eight countries, all of whom have been working in and on the region for several decades.
