European crises and the Asian economies

This paper analyses the impact of recent financial crises in Europe on the Asian economies. What is often abbreviated to GFC included three distinct crises: the 2007–2008 North Atlantic financial crisis, a 2008–2009 global economic crisis and public finance crises which became increasingly focussed on the eurozone in 2010–2012. Asia did not experience significant financial crises, and the open economies recovered relatively rapidly from the global economic crisis. The relative weight of Asian economies in the global economy, which had been increasing for several decades, grew even more rapidly in 2009–2011 as the economies of the USA and Europe faltered. This poses challenges for global economic governance, although there are constraints on Asia being a more assertive force. Problems in the eurozone hold lessons for Asia; the euro and the Schengenzone are positive responses to the emergence of increasingly complex supply chains. In a similar context, East Asia is moving hesitantly toward financial cooperation and adopting second-best approaches, such as de facto dollar pegs, to reducing bilateral exchange rate volatility.