•  The damage to balance sheets was enormous, with the financial sectors of the worst affected countries carrying capital losses of the order of 25 to 50 percent of GDP. Substantial capital losses had also occurred in the corporate sectors of those countries. •  Those balance sheet holes would have to be filled before any economic recovery could be considered robust.
Foreign investment would inevitably have to play a significant role in that task, and would bring other benefits besides speeding the recovery.