Analysis of Financial Crisis in Asia (Special Issue)

On October 8–10, 1998, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cosponsored the conference Asia: An Analysis of Financial Crisis. The conference served as a forum to discuss the economic and financial turmoil in East Asia that started with the devaluation of the Thai baht on July 2, 1997, and soon spread to other countries in the region. More than 230 academics, policymakers, and market participants from the U.S. and 17 foreign countries attended the three-day conference in Chicago. This Chicago Fed Letter summarizes the conference discussions, which addressed the origins and effects of the crisis in East Asia, the role of the IMF in relation to this and other crises, concerns about the regulatory framework, research into early warning indicators of financial crisis, the effects of moral hazard and lessons to be learned from the crisis.