After Thailand became ground zero in the Asian financial crisis, the baht achieved a long-running stability

Financial Times/Ruchir Sharma/2-11-2023

“The Thai economy contracted by nearly 20 percent, as stocks fell by more than 60 percent and the baht lost more than half its value against the dollar. Prices in Bangkok felt unbelievably cheap. I did not dare buy Thai stocks, with so much unsettled. But I did leave with many shopping bags and two golf sets, one to give away.”

USAGOLD note; Sharma begins this retrospective with a mention of the 1998 Asian currency crisis that began in Thailand.. As Sharma points out, Thailand’s crisis set off a global contagion that spread to other emerging countries, prompting world leaders to intervene to slow its advance. We note with interest that on the same day Financial Times posted Sharma’s article, Bloomberg ran a report warning that “the devaluation run in emerging markets is just getting started.”