Address by Dr Chris Stals, Governor of the South African Reserve Bank, at a Breakfast Meeting organised by Life Line West Rand Krugersdorp.   1. Background to the East Asian crisisIt is now history that the economies of a number of East Asian countries collapsed in the second half of 1997 and created disruptive turmoil in financial markets around the world. The countries most affected were Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.A number of reasons were provided for this collapse which shocked the world economy, particularly because it occurred in those countries that were the most successful in achieving their economic development objectives during the past thirty years. The main reasons included: a substantial build-up of foreign liabilities -- particularly of a short-term nature -- took place over the protracted period of rapid economic growth;the financial sectors were not properly supervised and regulated, with the result that banking insti-tutions accumulated large amounts of non-performing loans, not provided for in capital and reserves;there were unjustified governmental interventions in the normal working of the financial markets. Financial institutions were, for example, instructed to make loans to preferred clients at low interest rates;governance within private sector institutions, public corporations and government departments was of low quality and, in the case of some countries, undermined by corruption;macroeconomic policies did not adjust to the changing environment; markets were liberalised without concurrent adjustment in internal economic structures; money supply and bank credit extension increased almost unchecked; interest rates were kept artificially low, and exchange rates were not allowed to adjust in accordance with changes in the overall balance of payments situation.The final collapse was triggered first in Thailand, when foreign investors lost confidence in the economy and started to withdraw part of their more liquid investments from the country. The authorities were very slow to react to the threatening crisis. As became evident at a later stage, important information on the deteriorating economic situation was withheld from the markets and vital statistics were, in some cases, deliberately not released.In the end, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, a number of the governments of industrial countries, and the international investment community, had to provide a massive amount of financial support -- more than US $120 billion -- to assist these countries. The countries themselves also had to implement painful corrective measures that will, over time, restore equilibrium in their economies. These programmes inter alia provide for: relatively restrictive monetary policies that must prevent further depreciation of the currencies to protect domestic institutions with outstanding foreign liabilities from further losses, and must eventually reduce inflation;the restructuring of the financial sectors through predetermined reform agendas in each country. Public sector rescue operations must be supported by cost sharing sacrifices from the private sector, and prudential regulations for financial institutions must be tightened;improvements in public and corporate governance and a strengthening of transparency and accountability;a reduction in the dependence of public sector budgets on external funds, and fiscal provision for the costs of restructuring and recapitalising banking systems.The devastating effects of the crises can be illustrated by a few statistics from some of the affected countries. According to a recent World Bank report, prices of key commodities, such as rice, increased by 25 per cent or more in Indonesia, leading to food riots and major demonstrations against the Government. Unemployment is rising sharply and will increase the number of people living below the poverty line from 23 million to 40 million during the course of 1998.In Korea, bankruptcies and unemployment are on the rise. Eight of the thirty biggest conglomerates (chaebol) h