The impact of the financial and economic crisis in Asia on Norway's major development partners. Report submitted to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Abstract

This report first describes the currency, financial and economic crises in Asia and analyses how the crises evolved. The second part analyses how the three types of crises affect selected Norwegian development partners in Africa and Asia. It is suggested that the currency crisis had very little impact in the poorest developing partners that are not integrated into the world financial system. The currency crisis did, however, spread to South Africa. As a result the easing of monetary policy that was under way was reversed. The economic crisis on the other hand, has had a more significant impact, both in terms of export demand facing the countries in question and the prices they obtain on their exports. These losses are, however, at least partly counterbalanced by cheaper oil imports.