History repeating

A little over a decade ago, several Asian economies were badly caught out by sudden, devastating moves in the foreign exchange markets. In the build-up to the crisis, which began in July 1997 with the collapse of the Thai baht, Asian corporates and financial institutions had extensively tapped offshore capital markets - particularly in US dollars. But when Asian currencies plunged in value, the mismatch between local currency assets and dollar liabilities led to a spate of corporate bankruptcies