It might also be noted by those who believe that exchange rate flexibility would have avoided the crisis that these countries’ exchange rates had been under substantial upward pressure during the first half of the 1990s.
While the policies they pursued have clearly turned out to be unsustainable, the counter-factual - earlier introduction of floating exchange rates - might also have been a very bumpy ride.3 In short, it may be routine to refer to these as currency crises, but the exchange rate movements are symptomatic of something else.