Australia: Has It Weathered the Crisis?

From an Australian perspective, the tumult in some Asian economies over the period 1997 to 1999 has passed with little apparent effect. While both real and nominal output in five key Asian economies (Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Korea, hereafter the crisis economies1) has fallen appreciably with consequent effects on employment, consumption, confidence, household income and poverty in those countries, the Australian economy has been one of the best performing economies in the world. Given Australia’s proximity to, and interaction with the crisis Asian economies this may seem surprising and it is informative to ask the question why.