Emerging Economies and the Financial Crises of the Late 1990s

Abstract

Emerging market countries scattered across Latin America, East Asia, and Eastern Europe were overwhelmed by financial collapse beginning in late 1994. Although the afflicted countries had widely varying economic and political structures, their crises shared the similarities of local currency collapse, plunging stock and bond markets, bad debt-ridden national banking systems, and mass exodus of foreign investors. Persuasive evidence teaches that developing economies must give strict attention to their financial liabilities in order to avoid a perilous capital structure that will magnify the effects of any adverse financial shocks.