Author: Chalongphob Sussangkarn, TDRI

The Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI) is a regional foreign exchange liquidity support mechanism that developed as a result of the 1997–98 Asian financial crisis.

The CMI was designed to be closely linked to the IMF, and later evolved into a multilateralised mechanism, the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM). Read more…

Author: Chalongphob Sussangkarn, TDRI, Bangkok

The Red Shirts’ protracted occupation of a central Bangkok area and the eventual violent and deadly end in May 2010 reiterated the highly divisive situation in Thai politics.

This protest, like the Yellow Shirts’ closure of the Bangkok airport toward the end of 2008, had the potential to have extended negative impacts on the broader economy, particularly on foreigners’ confidence. Read more…

Author: Chalongphob Sussangkarn, TDRI

East Asian economies should push ahead with Financial Cooperation measures initiated in response to the 1997/98 crisis, as well as other cooperation measures in direct response to the current sub-prime crisis. These measures will facilitate the ability of countries in the region to shore up their economies in the short-term, their growth path to be less dependent on exports as the main growth engine in the medium term, and strengthen the region’s economic and financial resiliency and protect itself from future crises in the medium to long term.

It is now clear that the indirect impacts of the sub-prime crisis on the region through the trade channel will be very severe. Read more…