Hillary Mwendwa

Asian Business Environment: The East Asian Tiger Economies Hillary Mwendwa

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Economics - Case Scenarios, grade: A, University of Cambridge, language: English, abstract: The East Asian Tiger economies never really recovered from the Asian Financial Meltdown of 1997. And the changes in their economic policies and their domestic economic structures mean they never really will." The financial crisis in East Asia is not unique from the standpoint of a region facing an economic downturn; there have literally been hundreds of economic disturbances and recessions in the last few decades. However, what is inimitable in this crisis is the region's consistent history of high investment and savings rates, its reputation for strong growth, and fiscal stability; nations with such strengths typically do not experience economic downturns of the magnitude of the East Asian crisis. The financial crisis in the Asian-Pacific region was as much about macroeconomic and regulatory fundamentals as it was a crisis of the neo-liberal economic philosophy utilized to assist with the transition of emerging economies. Market liberalization policies had long been supported by the U. S. Treasury, World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Such policies were a means of not only liberalizing previously controlled emerging economies, but were also implemented to allow greater access of Western business interests to such lucrative new markets. The crisis highlighted the disastrous consequences of capital account liberalization in emerging market economies lacking the macroeconomic, regulatory, and financial infrastructures to manage such monumental changes.