The OECD was at the time also telling us not to increase rates. We had evidence coming from the monetary analysis that it was appropriate to increase rates. We increased rates. Today there is not the slightest criticism on what we did at the time. This is no time for complacency in any respect today.
Many of these economies also contracted sharply, but thus far they have recovered more slowly than economies in Asia. In the case of Latin America, closer links to the U.S. economy (especially in the case of Mexico) and greater dependence on commodity exports (whose prices declined during the most intense phase of the crisis) were additional sources of weakness.