A period of stability following the announcement of the support program for Thailand in early August was short lived and by early October the currencies of Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia were again under intense pressure. Attention then shifted to the economies of north Asia, which up until then had been only lightly affected.
There was tremendous pressure on the Hong Kong dollar peg, where overnight interest rates soared and the share market slumped. As corporate and banking problems intensified in Korea, foreign lenders cut back credit lines, and in November Korea approached the IMF for assistance in meeting foreign currency obligations.