When economic plague struck the Asia-Pacific economies, they fell ill in sequence, first one then another getting infected and collapsing. It started in Thailand with a currency depreciation, and arguably ended in Hong Kong with a massive government market intervention. The sickness crept virulently through the overheated economies of the region, aided in most places by rigid bank regulation and the accompanying bloated property sector. Now, for differing reasons, the region's countries are starting to recover, in roughly the same order that they fell ill in. US treasury secretary, Lawrence Summers, says that those afflicted Asian countries that carried out their International Monetary Fund (IMF) programmes, Korea, Thailand and the Philippines - have progressed well. But a relapse, he says, is not unthinkable.
