Economics

Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Thailand had rapid economic growth for quite some time.   These newly industrialized countries, known as the Four Asian Tigers, maintained exceptionally high growth rates and rapid industrialization between 1960s and 1990s.   Each region soon became highly educated and skilled in specialized areas, which brought them competitive advantages.   However, the Asian financial crisis of 1997 had a deep impact not only to the Four Asian Tigers, but on the financial markets around the world.   The beginning of the currency depreciation started in Thailand, where the Thai economy attracted large foreign capital inflows and used unhedged debts to expand domestic lending and investments in properties that were overpriced.   The floating of the Thai Baht (Thailand’s currency) in July of 1997 resulted in the depreciation of the Thai currency from 25 Baht/USD to about 60 Baht/USD and withdrew support for distressed nonbank financial institutions.   This currency depreciation influenced many other Asian countries.   Thailand’s prosperity bubble was growing faster than inflators’ could handle and eventually burst due to hyper growth, which began the 1997 Asian financial crisis.  
In the past decade, Thailand became the fastest growing economy in the world. Thailand, along with the other Asian Tigers experienced high growth rates, GDP of 8-12%, in the late 1980s and early 1990s.   In mid 1997, Thailand’s growth rates overall, particularly in manufacturing and industries, set records. But this soon came crashing during the 1997 Asian financial crisis.   This domino effect began with Thailand in July 1997. Thailand's economy developed a quickly growing bubble fueled with hot money, money that moves frequently between financial markets as investors attempt to ensure the highest short-term interest rates possible.   During the mid-1990s, Thailand, South Korea, and Indonesia had large private current account deficits.   The maintenance of fixed exchange rates...