We would not have it any other way, because the advantages of openness far outweigh the disadvantages. But the risks involved in this exposure were brought home to us by the Asian financial crisis. 20. For Hong Kong, the consequences of that crisis have been first a sharp recession, and secondly the series of attacks on our currency which I have already described. At the height of these attacks, during the summer of 1998, there was clear evidence that the free market in Hong Kong was in danger of failing to fulfil its functions. Specifically, the currency, securities and futures markets were being distorted to the point where efficient resource allocation had given way to manipulative speculation; where prices in the markets were no longer being determined by changes in underlying supply and demand; and where interest rates, instead of reflecting the supply and demand of liquidity, were being hijacked for the purpose of engineering dramatic changes in the markets. Strong evidence suggests that at the time a very small group of players were responsible for a preponderant proportion of the short futures contracts open at that time. We also estimate that currency borrowings to the tune of $ billion, arranged in advance to avoid the expected interest rate volatility they were hoping to generate in Hong Kong, had been made by a similarly small group of players to be quickly dumped at a time when the markets were most vulnerable.
Thirachai Phuvanatnaranubala: Prospects for the Thai economy Speech by Mr Thirachai Phuvanatnaranubala, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Thailand, at the German-Thai Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting, Bangkok, 18 February 2003. *  *  *  Ambassador Andreas von Stechow , Distinguished guests, Ladies and gentlemen, It is a pleasure for me to be here. My task today is to assure you, as one of our most important groups of foreign investors, that the Thai economy is doing well. And for this year my task is quite easy. 2002 was a good year for the Thai economy. Despite much uncertainty in the global conditions, the Thai economy made a robust recovery with stability, both on the internal and external fronts. You may recall that 2 years after the crisis, we started to have positive growth in 1999. GDP growth rates for 1999 and 2000 were strong at 4.4 and 4.6%. But the year after that, in 2001, the global downturn adversely affected our export and made growth for 2001 dip to 1.9%. However, we recovered in 2002 when growth for the first three quarters climbed back up to 4.9%. For the final quarter, our initial estimate is just over 5%, which would result in growth for 2002 the whole year at 5% as well. This is a good performance in the midst of slow growth in many parts of the world. So what has caused this? First, there was an export recovery. Export contracted as much as -7% in 2001.