Notwithstanding the interventions organized by the IMF, the crisis deepened in December and the early days of this year. The falls in share prices and exchange rates against the dollar in the five countries mentioned since early 1997 have reached respectively 40 and 50 per cent on average; expressed in dollars, share prices have fallen to less than one third of the initial level.
The markets, and especially the stock markets, of Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong have been caught up in the crisis. Events in the markets and the poorer prospects for the economies of the countries hit by the crisis have adversely affected the already delicate balance of Japan’s capital market and the quality of its banking system’s assets.