Asian financial crisis

The banking crisis that hit Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) last week has spread. We recall with a shudder two recent financial contagions: the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, which led to a deep Asian recession, and the 2008 Great Recession, which led to a global downturn.

South Korea's central bank yesterday hiked its key interest rate by half a percentage point to a decade high as it tries to tackle surging inflation and support the plunging won.

US Deputy Prime Minister and Head of Chinese Delegation for Trade and Economic Negotiations with US, Liu He met in Washington yesterday with the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva.

Seven emerging economies are at risk of a crisis in the exchange rate. They are Sri Lanka, South Africa, Argentina, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey and Ukraine, experts from Nomura Holdings, quoted by Bloomberg, said in an interview.

Turkey's currency has rebounded to 5.9 against the U.S. dollar, having recovered significantly amid a crisis between Ankara and Washington.

Balkan nations need to develop a legal framework for dealing with bad loans, speed up judicial reforms and improve bankruptcy and insolvency laws to improve their economic prospects, the International Monetary Fund said in report on Monday.

How unique is the Greek crisis? Two charts tell the tragic tale. The first - from the International Monetary Fund's recent Article IV report on Greece - compares four major economic crises that took place in the developed world in the last 100 years: the Great Depression in the United States, the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, the eurozone recession and Greece's long collapse.

Increased political uncertainty, a fall in tourism, and high levels of corporate debt are taking their toll on Turkey's economy, where growth is expected to fall to 2.9 percent this year, the International Monetary Fund said on Nov. 4.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has upgraded its 2016 growth forecast for Turkey by 0.3 points in a report released on late Feb. 24, while the organization has pointed out a weakening global recovery, with the world economy "highly vulnerable" to adverse shocks. 

In emerging markets worldwide, currencies are plunging over fears that developing economies are on the verge of a crippling fall.